MEDIA RELEASE: Friday, April 17, 2020

Foxtel celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day
with incredible documentary line-up

Leonardo DiCaprio’s eye-opening documentary film, Ice on Fire

Programming available to stream on Foxtel Now

Today we’re focused on saving the world from a global pandemic, but what will we be facing in another 50 years? It’s never been more important to observe Earth Day, an annual event that raises awareness for the environmental protection of our planet. Held on April 22, this year will mark its 50th anniversary.

To celebrate this milestone, Foxtel has a specially curated line-up of programming available on demand, with additional titles also available to watch on National Geographic and BBC Earth, that will raise awareness of our dynamic planet and inspire stewardship for this generation and future ones to come.

Available from today, Foxtel is streaming the 50 Years of Earth Day Collection, featuring a range of specials and documentary films highlighting the beauty of our planet and our vital role in ensuring its future.

Immerse yourself in the sweeping cinematography of Ice on Fire, produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio. Filmed across the globe, from Norway to Alaska, Iceland to Colorado, Switzerland to Costa Rica to Connecticut, Ice on Fire is an eye-opening documentary that focuses on many never-before-seen solutions designed to slow down our escalating environmental crisis.

Set sail with Watson, chronicling Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson who has spent his life sailing the globe to keep the oceans and their inhabitants safe. Blending revealing contemporary interviews with Captain Watson, archival clips of Sea Shepherd’s dramatic encounters, and spectacular underwater nature footage, award-winning documentarian Lesley Chilcott paints a fascinating portrait of a man willing to put his own life at risk in a relentless quest to protect the oceans and the marine life within.

And don’t miss The Queen’s Green Planet, a landmark documentary following Her Majesty the Queen as she launches an ambitious project to create a global network of protected forests, spanning all the countries of the Commonwealth. At the heart of the film is a rare, informal conversation between the Queen and her good friend Sir David Attenborough about their shared passion for nature, filmed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

Other titles featured in the 50 Years of Earth Day Collection are Little Ice Age: Big Chill, Mutant Weather, Planet Earth, Hugh’s War on Plastic, Blue Planet II, Frozen Planet, Life, Africa and World From Above.

National Geographic will honour the anniversary with a week of documentaries, airing from April 20-24, highlighting this year’s Earth Day theme: conservation. The line-up includes the global premiere of Jane Goodall: The Hope on April 22, an uplifting two-hour special highlighting Dr. Goodall’s vast legacy of four decades transforming environmentalism, nonhuman animal welfare and conservation through her innovative approaches, becoming a worldwide icon. This singular story is of one remarkable woman who not only hoped for a better world — she achieved it.

Also premiering on National Geographic is Okavango: River of Dreams – The Divine Journey, a one hour special closely following wildlife filmmakers Derek and Beverly Joubert in the Okavango Delta; and Photo Ark, following award-winning photographer Joel Sartore on his globetrotting quest to capture some of the rarest animals in the world on film.

BBC Earth will also mark the occasion with a week of special programming screening each evening at 8.30pm from Monday, April 20. The week kicks off with the premiere of Blue Planet Revisited, exploring the challenges facing the marine eco-system and wildlife in the Great Barrier Reef and the Bahamas.

The cameras then move from under the ocean to hundreds of kilometres up in the sky in Earth From Space, capturing natural spectacles on an epic scale and showing viewers the planet’s extraordinary beauty and diversity in astonishing detail. The week will finish with a special Sunday screening of every episode of David Attenborough’s iconic Planet Earth II.

Don’t miss this incredible line-up of programming celebrating 50 Years of Earth Day. Titles available to stream On Demand via internet connected iQ boxes, on devices with Foxtel Go, and via Foxtel Now, plus on National Geographic and BBC Earth.

-Brad