The makers of National Geographic’s The Territory are celebrating their win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, one of the most prestigious awards in nonfiction.
The prize, voted on by a special jury, was shared by director-producer Alex Pritz, producers Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, and Lizzie Gillett, and executive producer Txai Suruí. Their film centers on the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people, who face constant assault as they try to protect their territory within Brazil’s Amazon rainforest from invasion by outsiders. As Deadline previously wrote about the film, those invaders are “engaged in burning down great swaths of the rainforest for mining, logging, clearing land for cattle and homesteading.”
The film also underscores what’s at stake with each acre of Brazilian rainforest that goes up in smoke — it is the ecological health of the Earth that hangs in the balance.
The prize, voted on by a special jury, was shared by director-producer Alex Pritz, producers Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, and Lizzie Gillett, and executive producer Txai Suruí. Their film centers on the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people, who face constant assault as they try to protect their territory within Brazil’s Amazon rainforest from invasion by outsiders. As Deadline previously wrote about the film, those invaders are “engaged in burning down great swaths of the rainforest for mining, logging, clearing land for cattle and homesteading.”
The film also underscores what’s at stake with each acre of Brazilian rainforest that goes up in smoke — it is the ecological health of the Earth that hangs in the balance.
- 1/8/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
There has been a huge tone shift for indigenous communities across Brazil since Alex Pritz completed filming his documentary, “The Territory.” This has come specifically from former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeating the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in last October’s election. “While it’s not an overtly political film, you see the effects of Bolsonaro’s policies and his political speech has on these people and how that is converted into violence really quickly,” Pritz tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: Film Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).
Lula has made many promises to the indigenous communities of Brazil and he’s already started a new Ministry of Indigenous Affairs along with having a record number of indigenous women in the new Congress. “We’re really looking to the future and looking for ways that we can support the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau in building something better for the next generation.
Lula has made many promises to the indigenous communities of Brazil and he’s already started a new Ministry of Indigenous Affairs along with having a record number of indigenous women in the new Congress. “We’re really looking to the future and looking for ways that we can support the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau in building something better for the next generation.
- 1/12/2023
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Engines roar, blades are sharpened, recoil starters sputter and whine. The opening of Alex Pritz’s Sundance-winning documentary “The Territory” prepares the audience for a real “Chainsaw Massacre,” one that plays out in the Amazon rainforest. But this film is far more terrifying, and galvanizing, than Tobe Hooper’s ‘70s slasher classic.
The violence is no less upsetting, and at times, watching the film feels like bearing witness to a genocide unfolding in real time. The murders — of old-growth trees on protected indigenous land in Brazil — are sickening to watch; the suspense with which the film unfolds is riveting. Fortunately, there’s also an inspiring hero at the center of the story, who takes up a unique weapon in order to fight the destruction of his people.
The title of the documentary refers to an area of land in the center of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, occupied by the Uru-eu-wau-wau,...
The violence is no less upsetting, and at times, watching the film feels like bearing witness to a genocide unfolding in real time. The murders — of old-growth trees on protected indigenous land in Brazil — are sickening to watch; the suspense with which the film unfolds is riveting. Fortunately, there’s also an inspiring hero at the center of the story, who takes up a unique weapon in order to fight the destruction of his people.
The title of the documentary refers to an area of land in the center of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, occupied by the Uru-eu-wau-wau,...
- 11/30/2022
- by Katie Walsh
- The Wrap
“Living in a habitable planet and being able to survive here for generations to come should not be a political issue,” declares Alex Pritz, director of the National Geographic documentary “The Territory.” “The conflict that we were looking at in Brazil, a lot of people are just focused on them and theirs. They agree the rainforest is a good thing. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a national treasure for Brazil, but I just need my little chunk of it here. Then behind these small foot soldiers of colonialism and natural destruction are much larger business owners and people financing this.”
We talked with Pritz as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
See dozens of interviews with 2022/2023 awards contenders
In “The Territory,” a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest,...
We talked with Pritz as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
See dozens of interviews with 2022/2023 awards contenders
In “The Territory,” a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest,...
- 11/12/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Vladimir Putin may prefer that people forget about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but the Cinema Eye Honors isn’t.
The awards show dedicated to the art and craft of documentary film today announced its 2023 Unforgettables list of the most memorable subjects of nonfiction films this year, and Navalny’s name was front and center. The story of the lawyer and anti-corruption crusader, who was almost killed in a Kremlin poisoning plot in 2020, is told in the award-winning film Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher.
Joining Navalny on the Unforgettables list is another political leader — Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman from Arizona who was severely injured in an assassination attempt in 2011. Her difficult road to recovery and return to activism is told in Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen.
Artist Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin, the artist at the center of the Laura Poitras...
The awards show dedicated to the art and craft of documentary film today announced its 2023 Unforgettables list of the most memorable subjects of nonfiction films this year, and Navalny’s name was front and center. The story of the lawyer and anti-corruption crusader, who was almost killed in a Kremlin poisoning plot in 2020, is told in the award-winning film Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher.
Joining Navalny on the Unforgettables list is another political leader — Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman from Arizona who was severely injured in an assassination attempt in 2011. Her difficult road to recovery and return to activism is told in Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen.
Artist Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin, the artist at the center of the Laura Poitras...
- 10/26/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Grim but inspiring documentary follows 18-year-old Bitaté, elected to lead the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people’s fight for survival
Watching this gripping documentary shot in the Brazilian Amazon, you wonder if our electoral system could learn a thing or two from the Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people. Voting for a new leader, elders elect 18-year-old Bitaté, a young activist who radiates energy, idealism and intelligence (often while wearing a Harry Potter T-shirt). He doesn’t feel ready for the responsibility: “I’m scared of disappointing people.” (I can think of a politician or two who might benefit from a bit of Bitaté’s introspection).
The stakes could not be higher. The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau are fighting for their survival, under threat from farmers seizing their land with impunity. According to environmental activist Neidinha Bandeira, protecting the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau is key to saving the Amazon. Their territory is a barrier against deforestation: “Lose them, lose the rainforest.” (Is...
Watching this gripping documentary shot in the Brazilian Amazon, you wonder if our electoral system could learn a thing or two from the Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people. Voting for a new leader, elders elect 18-year-old Bitaté, a young activist who radiates energy, idealism and intelligence (often while wearing a Harry Potter T-shirt). He doesn’t feel ready for the responsibility: “I’m scared of disappointing people.” (I can think of a politician or two who might benefit from a bit of Bitaté’s introspection).
The stakes could not be higher. The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau are fighting for their survival, under threat from farmers seizing their land with impunity. According to environmental activist Neidinha Bandeira, protecting the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau is key to saving the Amazon. Their territory is a barrier against deforestation: “Lose them, lose the rainforest.” (Is...
- 8/31/2022
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
The danger to those who try to speak up about the assault on Brazil's indigenous communities since the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 recently made UK news with the murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira earlier this summer. Alex Pritz's documentary comes at the issue from a spectrum of viewpoints to show just how wide and deep the threat to a 7,000-square-mile patch of the Amazon and the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau who live there is.
While there's no doubting whose side his film is on, Pritz is comprehensive in his considerations of the perspectives not only of the Uru-eu-wau-wau and environmental activist Neidinha Bandeira but of farm workers, and at the more extreme end 'settlers', who are keen to raise sections of the forest and secure their own patch of farmland. Among them is Sérgio, a labourer who is endeavouring to take over parts.
While there's no doubting whose side his film is on, Pritz is comprehensive in his considerations of the perspectives not only of the Uru-eu-wau-wau and environmental activist Neidinha Bandeira but of farm workers, and at the more extreme end 'settlers', who are keen to raise sections of the forest and secure their own patch of farmland. Among them is Sérgio, a labourer who is endeavouring to take over parts.
- 8/16/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Darren Aronofsky may be known for tense psychological dramas ranging from “Requiem for a Dream” to “The Wrestler,” and has another one in the pipeline this fall with “The Whale,” but the filmmaker has a side hustle with much loftier aims. As the producer of the National Geographic series “One Strange Rock” and “Welcome to Earth” through his company Protozoa Pictures, Aronofsky has been pushing for environmentally-conscious non-fiction projects in tandem with his own directorial undertakings, which he sees as a direct response to divisive Washington rhetoric.
“It’s a very sad state of affairs to call the environment political,” Aronofsky told IndieWire in a recent interview. “I don’t know how we lost control of that conversation.”
His latest effort on that front is “The Territory,” filmmaker Alex Pritz’s intense debut feature that follows the efforts of the Indigenous Amazon community called Uru-eu-wau-wau to protect their land from aggressive deforestation efforts.
“It’s a very sad state of affairs to call the environment political,” Aronofsky told IndieWire in a recent interview. “I don’t know how we lost control of that conversation.”
His latest effort on that front is “The Territory,” filmmaker Alex Pritz’s intense debut feature that follows the efforts of the Indigenous Amazon community called Uru-eu-wau-wau to protect their land from aggressive deforestation efforts.
- 8/15/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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