12 Sustainable Fashion Documentaries And Short Films To Add To Your Watch List

Many sustainable fashion advocates will cite watching The True Cost as one of the pivotal moments that inspired their journey into slow fashion. It is one of those documentaries that, once watched, will change your outlook on the fashion industry for good.

In this eye-opening sustainable fashion documentary, filmmaker Andrew Morgan exposes the global networks of clothing production and transports the viewer to different locations to explore the social and environmental effects of cheap fashion – from interviews with underpaid, undervalued garment workers to the pollution, waste, and environmental degradation that leads to public health crises.

It is a challenging commentary on fast fashion, consumerism, media, and global capitalism.

Color is one of the most compelling, evocative, and attractive elements of fashion. But, the story of what it takes to create the rainbow of hues that we are used to seeing when we walk into a store is not nearly as picturesque.

This award-winning slow fashion documentary follows international river conservationist, Mark Angelo, and is narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley. The film takes the viewer on a shocking journey, from the world’s most pristine to polluted rivers.

It details the stark reality of the impacts of water pollution on natural ecosystems, the harm caused to garment workers who are in close contact with synthetic dyes, and the ways marginalized communities living near garment factories are affected by this contamination. All this in the name of the next best color.

Almost every one of us owns a garment with cotton content. But, how many of us know the truth about the journey of that cotton before it ends up in our favorite t-shirt or pair of pants?

Cotton Road follows the commodity of cotton from South Carolina farms to Chinese factories to illuminate the complexities of this global supply chain. It shares the journey of how cotton travels across countries and continents, the stories of workers in a conventional cotton supply chain, and provides a commentary on the exploitative nature of globalized labor in the fast fashion industry where the primary priority is maximizing profits at all costs.

In this three-part docu-series produced by WaterBear (a free streaming platform dedicated to the future of our planet), climate activist Mikaela Loach explores what it will take to hold the fashion industry to account and all the innovative, inclusive, practical solutions that will play a part in this.

This short series acts as an entry point for anyone curious to learn more about the world of sustainable fashion. While it does highlight many of the major concerns in the fashion industry, the series is intentionally solutions-focussed and aims to share the work of designers putting sustainable fashion into tangible practice, such as Phoebe English, Christopher Raeburn, and Orsola De Castro.

This short film sheds light on the journey of fashion waste and helps us understand that the immense waste of the fashion industry doesn’t just disappear when we discard it – it always ends up somewhere else and becomes someone else’s burden. In this case, the clothes journey through Northern India where they eventually end up in the tiny town of Panipat – the place where they are recycled back into yarn.

Knowing little about the origins of the clothes or why they arrive in such vast quantities, the Indian women who recycle this waste reflect on these clothes and construct stories of their journeys based on their understanding of the Global North.

This film paints a powerful picture of the politics of waste and the power dynamics that underpin the management of fashion waste while sharing the stories and thoughts of the people who are tasked with creating solutions for someone else’s discarded clothing.

This 30-minute short film is narrated by Sarah Diouf, founder of the Senegalese brand, Tongoro, and offers a lens into foundations of this 100% made in Africa brand that draws on generational culture and craftspeople. Diouf believes that the ethical fashion industry across the continent is a catalyst for social and economic change.

“We come from rich cultures where pride is the essence and we’ve learned, over time, the importance of versatility and adaptation in a world that has kept treating us as if we are less than. The world that unfairly portrayed us for so long is the one that is now trying to understand what makes us so unique,” says Diouf in the opening scenes of the film.

Indeed, the film will take you on a journey of this uniqueness. This slow fashion documentary, with richly immersive imagery, offers inspiration for the future of African fashion and many lessons that the rest of the fashion world should learn from.

Fashionscapes produced by Andrew Morgan (director of The True Cost) and Eco-Age founder and creative director Livia Firth, is a five-part docu-series that takes an investigative look at fashion’s global supply chains and puts forward sustainable solutions.

This series will take you on a trip around the world from wool production in Tasmania, to the role of Mayan women artisans in Guatemala, and the diamond supply chain in Botswana. The two other episodes unpack the urgent need for living wages and garment worker rights, and what it will take to create a truly circular economy.

It features in-depth commentary and analysis from activists and changemakers advocating for a more just and sustainable fashion future. This short series is an important reminder that there is no such thing as cheap fashion – someone always pays the price.

In this film by Rubaiyat Hossain, the viewer follows the journey of 23-year-old Shimu who works in a textile factory in Dhaka, earning very little and the fashion industry’s exploitative labor practices first hand. After crossing paths with a labor union advocate who teaches Shimu about worker rights, she embarks on a journey to unionize the women she works with but is met with resistance at every turn.

It is not a documentary, but it is closely based on real-life events and provides a powerful social commentary on the impacts of exploitative labor practices, the global trade structures that uphold them, and the importance of collective organizing and worker unions.  This film tells the story of exploitation, but also empowerment, and the complexity of human life.

The Clothes We Wear is a short sustainable fashion documentary filmed in Germany that peels away the allure of bargain-hunting and fast fashion to show how overconsumption affects planetary systems. This documentary illuminates how the clothes we buy are linked to negative environmental and social impacts that we are often not aware of, in countries far away.

And, now that big fashion has figured out that sustainability sells, the film also debunks the rampant greenwashing of many well-known brands. If you want a refresher on why overproduction and overconsumption will never be sustainable, The Clothes We Wear is the film for you.

This six-part docu-series, produced by Remake, is for people who are asking the question: Who made my clothes?

It will take you on a journey to six countries across the world as the stories and personal histories of garment workers from each country are spotlighted to draw attention to the rampant labor exploitation in the fashion industry.

This series is a stark reminder of why fast fashion is a feminist issue, and how many hands our clothing passes through before it ends up in our closets. With each episode, Remake emphasizes that the story of fashion is the story of the women who make our clothes.

Udita (Rise Up) is an observational sustainable fashion documentary covering five years in the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers from 2010 when collective organizing in the factory led to harsh punishments, through the Tazreen and infamous Rana Plaza disasters, and the years after the tragedies as the fight for unionization and garment worker rights continues. 

It is a biography of resistance and an ode to the resilient Bangladeshi women who are at the forefront of the struggle to fight for the lives that they, and their families, deserve.

This two-part docu-series produced by award-winning duo, Charney Magri and Ramzi Moutran, follows the journey of two sustainably made garments – in reverse. One garment is composed of natural, renewable fibers, and the other is a next-gen solution free from ancient and endangered forests.

By following the supply chain of each garment, the series focuses on the environmental elements of fibers and fabrics used to make the two garments. While unpacking the impacts of these fibers and fabrics, the series also shares the work and perspectives of boundary-pushing designers who are creating innovative solutions for a more sustainable fashion future.

Stella Hertantyo is a slow fashion and slow living enthusiast based in Cape Town, South Africa. Stella finds solace in words as a medium for sharing ideas and encouraging a cultural shift that welcomes systems change and deepens our collective connection to the world around us. She is passionate about encouraging an approach to sustainability, and social and environmental justice, that is inclusive, intersectional, accessible, and fun.

Stella holds a B.A. Multimedia Journalism from the University of Cape Town, and a PGDip in Sustainable Development from the Sustainability Institute. She currently works as a writer, editor, and social media manager. When she is not in front of her laptop, a dip in the ocean, or a walk in the mountains, are the two things that bring her the most peace.