Werner Herzog will find the metaphor here.

D.C.'s Environmental Film Festival has announced its lineup for March 15-27, and it is overwhelming: 150 films from 40 countries, plus 55 filmmakers in attendance to discuss their work. Major themes: coal, oil, gas, plastic, water, global warming, green architecture, and community gardening. I'll save a more comprehensive guide for when the festival nears, but here are some films and events that stand out.

• Happy People: A Year in the Taiga: Werner Herzog's latest film documents life in Bakhta, a village in Northern Russia. I would listen to Herzog narrate anything.

• Olmstead and America's Urban Parks: A profile of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park and the grounds around the U.S. Capitol building.

• Biologist and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Dr. E.O. Wilson will lecture on his two new books, The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct and Kingdom of the Ants: Jose? Celestino Mutis and the Dawn of American Natural History.

• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: This Thai film won the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes.

• Stories from the Gulf: Living with the BP Oil Disaster: I suspect there are many more docs like this to come.

• Elite Squad 2: The first Elite Squad was one of the finest Brazilian films of the past decade. The sequel is the highest-grossing movie in the country's history, and a friend I trust says it's one of the best action movies he's ever seen.

Here's the full lineup.