Feel like learning something important instead of melting your brain while watching The Real World? Here is a list of 5 documentaries that will educate and shock you. Warning, you may want to go vegan after watching these!

1. COWSPIRACY- This movie is interesting and I suggest you go watch it! Even if you are not a vegan, Cowspiracy is one heck of a suspenseful and energetic journey into the destructive world of animal agriculture. Starring one of it’s directors Kip Andersen, Cowspiracy takes you on an energetic journey through every query Kip can think of. What is great about Kip is he is not afraid to ask questions and this is the fundamental backbone to the movie. After watching Cowspiracy, you will have a lot of beef with some well known ¨planet-saving ¨organizations for wanting to hide something HUGELY devastating but rarely talked about.

2. LIVE AND LET LIVE– In short, here is a documentary about 6 people who switch to a vegan lifestyle and ultimately, how it affects them. What’s cool about this movie is that all the participants come from different occupations. They aren’t all what people typically picture as vegans (you know, hippies with dreadlocks). Of all the movies on the list it is the least intense and perhaps a great way for you to share the history of veganism and much more with an uninterested (or perhaps easily offended) omnivore.

3. THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE – This one’s for the animals, not the food or the people. The movie follows animal activist and photojournalist Jo-Ann McArthur, who is dedicated and likeable however not preachy. In this way the movie is the least scientific and most personal of the films but I think that’s what is unique about it. Jo-Ann has an undying love for animals as individual beings and it is contagious to the watcher. Also the music is super eerie and cool!

4. EARTHLINGS– This is for all the structural film lovers out there…Ok, I get only a few people will get that. This film is for the Joaquin lovers or just regular old movie watchers. Out of all the documentaries on the list, this is by far the most dark one. Using raw footage, Earthlings does not shy away from the brutal truth of how animals are exploited by us. There is nothing like a stern but mystifying Joaquin Phoenix voiceover discussing how we wrongfully use animals as pets, for food, entertainment, science and clothing!

5. VEGUCATED– This documentary follows 3 meat and cheese lovers that definitely do want to go vegan for 6 whole weeks! “No meat, no dairy products. No animal products of any kind”. The movie is a sort of revelatory journey of these individuals and their extraordinary change in heart. Once exposed to the horrors of the meat agriculture business, the participants are fuelled by their newfound passion and end up doing things they never thought they would. And to be honest, it gets more deep (and exciting) than I thought it would.