Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction

The first feature-length documentary film to fully investigate the growing threat to Earth's life-support systems from the loss of biodiversity. If current trends continue, scientists warn that half or more of all plant and animal species on Earth will become extinct within the next few decades. Call of Life investigates the scope, the causes, and the predicted effects of this unprecedented loss of life, but also looks deeper, at the ways in which both culture and psychology have helped to create and perpetuate the situation. The film not only tells the story of a crisis in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more complex and threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.

Directed by Monte Thompson, Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction leans on a strong ensemble — Steven Beissinger, Sally Bingham, Ignacio Chapela — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about documentary titles of 2010.