Leonardo DiCaprio's "The 11th Hour" is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The 11th Hour documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet's life systems and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity.

DiCaprio states "With the onset of global warming and other catastrophic events, environmentalism has become a broader unifying human issue. We as citizens, leaders, consumers and voters, have the opportunity to help integrate ecology into governmental policy and every day living standards."

With the help of over fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, "The 11th Hour" documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed, and their causes rooted in human activity. The combination of these crises call into question the very future not of the planet, but of humanity.

However, the most powerful element of "The 11th Hour" is not a portrait of a planet in crisis, but the offering of hope and solutions. Scientists and environmental advocates such as David Orr and Gloria Flora paint a portrait for a radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks not to dominate the earth's life systems, but to mimic them and coexist. "The 11th Hour" calls for a future now within our grasp that is both sustainable and healthier.

The film was directed by sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. They state, "We made this film as call to action, especially to young people. They are the ones who have the power to reshape the future. We must begin now." They have established 11thhouraction.com as a place for people to gather and effect change.

"The 11th Hour" will be released in New York and Los Angeles on August 17 and then begin wider national release on August 24 .