Cartel Land
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Message From the Other Side
Matthew Heineman’s Academy Award-nominated documentary Cartel Land was a visceral cinematic journey into the Mexican drug wars, focusing on a pair of citizens hailing from both sides of the border who take vigilante action against the cartels. Heineman shot most of the movie himself, and his approach was to startle viewers with his level of access — he and his fellow shooters were in real danger — while, in postproduction, crafting his images, sounds and music with the emotional sweep of a narrative feature. Just two years after Cartel Land, Heineman has returned with another riveting doc, City of Ghosts, […]
by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus on Jun 16, 2017 -
The Orchard Releases Detailed Distribution Revenue Figures for Cartel Land, Launches New Film Analytics Dashboard
Distributor The Orchard launched today what they are calling “the industry’s first fully-transparent dashboard for film analytics.” Using figures for their recent release, the Oscar-nominated doc Cartel Land, the dashboard provides hard figures for film revenues across both different platforms and then tracks and projects them over time. Simply put, this is extraordinary. The lack of digital reporting figures has been cited repeatedly in Filmmaker and elsewhere as an impediment to filmmakers seeking to create business plans for their films. The Cartel Land example posted today provides significantly more granular detail than is typically reported in the trades, and dynamic […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2016 -
The Origins and Challenges of Cartel Land, Amy, What Happened, Miss Simone? and Winter on Fire
Few festivals do a better job of rounding up the year’s most enticing documentaries than the always charming Savannah Film Festival. During its 18th edition last fall, the festival — largely curated by publicist Steven Wilson and entertainment reporter Scott Feinberg on behalf of the Savannah College of Art and Design — brought many of the leading lights in documentary filmmaking to the northeastern corner of Georgia for its second annual “Docs to Watch” sidebar. The culmination of the program is a panel, moderated by Feinberg, that includes a smorgasbord of directors whose movies will figure prominently in the award season races to […]
by Brandon Harris on Feb 22, 2016 -
Watch: Roger Deakins and Matthew Heineman Talk Shooting the Drug War
One fiction, one documentary, Sicario and Cartel Land were the year’s two most vivid cinematic vocations of violence surrounding the Mexican drug wars. Here, courtesy of VICE, is a great conversation between Sicario D.P. Roger Deakins and Cartel Land director and cinematographer Matthew Heineman. They get deep into their visual ideas for the film as well as the narrative and moral issues those ideas are designed to represent.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2016 -
The Orchard Ripens
One of the busier buyers at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, The Orchard — per its website, a “21st-century distribution company with a global presence and a local feel” — has only recently made a name for itself as an arthouse distributor. Founded in 1997, they’ve been known as a leading distribution label for independent music; to date, digital music sales, streams and transactions from titles The Orchard oversees have accounted for 20 to 30 percent of all digital music revenue. But recently, The Orchard garnered media attention for its newly created film division, a division that applies the lessons […]
by Erik Luers on Jan 20, 2016 -
2015 in Ten Double Features
Every cinephile knows the curatorial bliss of a great double feature. A flexing of film nerd muscles while sitting on your ass for three to five hours, a double bill brings two films into dialogue with one another based on style, subject, theme, or whatever connective tissue you can find. Double features, like well-sequenced mixtapes, require the instincts of a programmer. Thanks to streaming, digital rentals, and the perennial ease of sneaking into a second film at your local AMC, the work of making a double bill happen has never been easier. Below, I rally through 10 great double features from […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 5, 2016 -
Cartel Land Leads the 9th Annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking Nominations
Here we have the full list of nominees for the 9th Annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. Cartel Land leads the pack with five nominations; the winners will be announced at the 9th Annual Honors Ceremony on January 13, 2016 at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. For more information, visit the Cinema Eye Honors website. Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking Amy Cartel Land Democrats Listen to Me Marlon The Look of Silence The Wolfpack Outstanding Achievement in Direction Matt Heineman, Cartel Land Kim Longinotto, Dreamcatcher Laurie Anderson, Heart of a Dog Frederick Wiseman, In Jackson […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 12, 2015 -
Director/Cinematographer Matthew Heineman on Shooting Sundance Award-Winning Doc Cartel Land
A tense, cinematically-styled verite documentary about the Mexican drug wars, Matthew Heineman’s Cartel Land was one of the big winners at Sundance this year, nabbing both the Directing and Cinematography Awards. Strikingly, both positions were filled by the same person: Matthew Heineman, who also produced and edited. (For Cartel Land, Heineman shares the d.p. credit with Matt Porwoll.) Below, the multi-hyphenate talks about why, for him, shooting isn’t entirely about the image; why being his own d.p. calmed him down during the tenser moments of production; and the benefits of capturing a flat image through Canon Log. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2015 -
Sundance 2015, Dispatch 5: The Chinese Mayor, Cartel Land and City of Gold
The vast world of Chinese independent documentaries was finally acknowledged by Sundance with the inclusion of Zhou Hao’s The Chinese Mayor. That’s not to bag on the festival for an anomalous oversight: this exciting and politically urgent strain of films has been happening for 15 years or so but not often acknowledged by U.S. festivals at large. This is a very good starting point. The mayor of Datong, Geng Yanbo, confesses that he’s happiest with communing with China’s past, so it makes sense that he plans to revitalize the country’s most polluted city by restoring its ancient wall, part of […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 30, 2015 -
“I’ve Been in Shootouts”: Cartel Land | Director Matt Heineman
What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? Cartel Land follows two modern-day vigilante groups fighting a shared enemy – the ruthless Mexican drug cartels. When I first heard about the Autodefensas movement in Michoacán, Mexico, and the American paramilitary group Arizona Border Recon, I was immediately drawn to know more about their worlds and their leaders, Dr. Jose Mireles (“El Doctor”) and Tim “Nailer” Foley. It took many months to gain their trust and the access I […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015
