Be An Animal Advocate / Films / Movies / Films & Videos

TERRA, The Movie – A Plea For Respect

by Jennie Richards · Published February 2, 2018 · Updated April 13, 2019

“This love for other living beings is within me. Let me open my eyes to the world, and see all beings with respect.”

TERRA tells the story of life on Earth. This 90-minute, visually breathtaking documentary by French filmmakers Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot is a beautiful and though-provoking ode to all life on the planet. Through gorgeous, up-close photography TERRA takes us on an emotional and visual journey depicting the evolution of life on Earth from the earliest life forms to the present age, and sheds light on humanity’s increasing impact on every living system on the planet as our population and human demands increase. The film depicts a number of remarkable and individual characteristics of certain life-forms and species as it explores the diversity and fragility of life on Earth and how truly interconnected we all are. We also witness over the course of time, how humanity has and is changing the face of the Earth as our population approaches 8 billion and we become more and more isolated from the natural world.

TERRA took filmmakers 18 months to produce, including more than 60 days of aerial photography and 60 days of shooting on the ground. Film directors from around the world contributed their expertise and knowledge to the making of the film. The film crew traveled the world shooting in South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, India, Siberia, Russia, France, Iceland, Nepal, Madagascar, Venezuela, and the U.S., capturing how humanity is rapidly changing our world.

Like a heart-felt poem, TERRA quietly implores each of us to open our eyes, our hearts and our consciousness to accept, respect and live more compatibly with all natural living systems and the beings we share our planet with. By changing the way we live to live more simply with less impact, we can minimize hurting and destroying other life forms and species that we share the Earth with.

Film Premier: 2015

Film Length: 1 hr / 37 min

Quotes From The Film

“There is still time to open our eyes, this is a story of a journey to reconnect with the Earth.”

“Every day 400,000 humans are born, and 160,000 die, making 240,000 new mouths to feed every single day.”

“Three quarters of the water on the planet is swallowed up by agriculture.”

“Our relationship with life is no longer mystical—it’s economical.”

“Primal forests have almost disappeared. One-third of the Earth’s surface is now devoted to agriculture.”

“Our economy relentlessly pursues constant growth.”

“A huge gulf has opened up between men and the rest of the world.”

“The demand for meat has exploded. Animal husbandry has become a globalized industry.”

“Man dominates wildlife now. As civilization has progressed, nature has diminished, we only tolerate its existence. Wild animals are refugees on planet Earth. Animals—now hungry, thirsty and afraid—they will soon have nowhere else to go.”

“Animals have become products. A cow is a product.”

“We eat steak, cutlets, and meat – as if a life never existed.”

“The death business is optimized—it’s butchery on a monumental scale.”

“In 500 generations, barely 10,000 years, almost everything has been domesticated. Agriculture has changed the face of the planet. Since 4 billion years of evolution – in just a few hundred years humans have changed everything, and depleted the resources on Earth and changed the climate.”

“In Australia, ranchers often have 50,000 head of cattle. Australia exports to Asia and Europe 1.5 million tons of carcass’ weight of beef and veal. It’s not even the animals that are counted now— just pieces of meat.”

“The U.S. were the pioneers in this commercialization of life. With profitability the watch word. They system is based on feed lots, which can contain up to 100,000 cows. Their diet contains no grass, only corn and growth hormones. The animals are even fed meat and bone meal from crushed animal carcasses. The animals are basically force-fed to produce more meat, more rapidly, and more cheaply—all for profit. And so I close my eyes.”

“Goats and dairy cows have become ‘machines’ to produce ‘raw materials.’ Fodder and water in one end output in the other. The animals suffer, but are forced to produce more and more, as prices just get cheaper. It’s an unsustainable system.”

“Every year, men kill and cut up 60,000,000,000 billion animals, all in a single year. Only intensive animal slaughterhouses can meet the constantly increasing demand for meat.”

“The food industry merely responds to an absurd demand – produce more – and lower the price.”

“The animals awaken a memory, an invisible thread, that connects me to every other living being. I know that, but I know we’re running out of space.”

“The wild animals in Botswana have to learn to live like refugees. Namibia sells licenses to kill their wild animals. The basic principle that you have to sell an animal, to save them—where does that end?”

“In Denver, Colorado, the National Wildlife Property Repository stores confiscated wild animals. It’s a sad, dismal inventory that says much about possession, cruelty and domination by humans of animals. The walls reveal only an image of madness—my own madness.”

“A machine that propels man into an insane race, even if it poisons an entire planet. The Earth today is being invaded by chemicals.”

“Living beings are commodities that are traded by one office in NYC to another. Just bought and sold.”

“In the past 40 years, half of all the wild animals have disappeared. It’s estimated 60,000 species of plants will no longer exist by 2050. Animals are dying from new mysterious causes, extreme weather, new diseases, and if we add climate change to the mix – everything is in place to trigger a mass extinction. And next on the list is man himself.”

“Time is running out, we musn’t waste it.”

Watch The Film

Watch on Netflix

Watch on You Tube

More about TERRA

The Making of TERRA

More about Terra and Filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Watch TERRA in another language:
Audio: English, Spanish, German, French [Original], Mandarin
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French