Cartel Land is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman about the Mexican drug war, especially vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels. The film focuses on Tim "Nailer" Foley, the leader of Arizona Border Recon, and Dr. José Mireles, a Michoacán-based physician who leads the Autodefensas. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2016.
Synopsis The film focuses on two vigilante groups who fight drug cartels from different sides of the United States–Mexico border.
In Mexico, the film focuses on José Manuel Mireles Valverde, known locally as "El Doctor". Mireles becomes fed up with the local Knights Templar Cartel. He gathers a group of citizens from the state of Michoacán and leads an uprising, driving the cartel out of the region.
In the US, the film follows an American veteran named Tim "Nailer" Foley, who is forming a small paramilitary group called the Arizona Border Recon. His goal is to stop the same Mexican cartel from conducting business in the US.
Production Heineman got the idea for the film after reading about Arizona Border Recon in an article in Rolling Stone magazine, and then his father sent him a Wall Street Journal article about José Manuel Mireles and the Autodefensas.The Missing Story of the Drug War | The New Yorker "The minute I read that article, I knew I wanted to create a parallel story of vigilantes on both sides of the border. I wanted to know what happens when government institutions fail and citizens feel like they have to take the law into their own hands."
The film was shot in Michoacán, southwest Mexico and in Arizona. Heineman was inspired by The Square in the making of the film.
Reception Cartel Land received very positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 90% rating based on 99 reviews, and an average rating of 7.60/10. The site's consensus states: "Raw, brutal, and bitter, Cartel Land offers a ground-level look at vigilante efforts to thwart organized crime at the Mexican–American border." On Metacritic, the film has a 76 out of 100 rating based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Cartel Land appeared on over twenty critics' lists for best documentary and best film of 2015. It was listed as the #1 documentary of 2015 by Indiewire's The Playlist and by Paste Magazine, which also named Heineman as the best new filmmaker of the year. On December 1, the film was selected as one of 15 shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Heineman won the Best Director Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography for the film in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where the documentary premiered. He was presented the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary by the Directors Guild of America, as well as the 2015 Courage Under Fire Award for the film by the International Documentary Association. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary at the 69th British Academy Film Awards and for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards. The film received the 2015 Documentary Film Award from the George Polk Awards in Journalism.
On February 12, 2015, Orchard Films acquired the rights to the film. Cartel Land was released theatrically in the summer of 2015 and aired on A&E on January 4, 2016.
Awards and nominations Award Category Recipients and nominees Result Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin British Academy Film AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Amsterdam International Documentary Film FestivalAudience AwardCartel Land Ashland Independent Film FestivalBest DocumentaryCartel Land Austin Film Critics AssociationBest DocumentaryCartel Land Broadcast Film Critics Association AwardsBest Documentary FeatureCartel Land Champs-Élysées Film FestivalBest American Feature FilmCartel Land Chicago Film Critics Association AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Cinema Eye Honors AwardsOutstanding Achievement in DirectionMatthew Heineman Outstanding Achievement in Original Music ScoreJackson Greenberg and H. Scott Salinas Outstanding Achievement in ProductionCartel Land Outstanding Achievement in CinematographyMatthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature FilmCartel Land Creative Arts Emmy Awards Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Cartel Land Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) Cartel Land Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming Matthew Heineman Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming Matthew Hamachek, Matthew Heineman, Bradley J. Ross, and Pax Wassermann Dallas International Film FestivalBest Feature Documentary AwardCartel Land Directors Guild of AmericaOutstanding Directorial Achievement in DocumentaryMatthew Heineman Florida Film Critics Circle AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land George Polk AwardsDocumentary Film of 2015Cartel Land Gotham AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Hamburg Film FestivalPolitical Film AwardCartel Land Houston Film Critics Society AwardsBest Documentary FeatureCartel Land Indiewire Critics' PollBest DocumentaryCartel Land International Documentary AssociationCourage Under Fire AwardMatthew Heineman Italia Film FestivalBest DocumentaryCartel Land Little Rock Film FestivalBest DocumentaryCartel Land Milwaukee Film FestivalBest FilmCartel Land Moscow International Film FestivalBest Documentary FilmCartel Land New Hampshire Film FestivalBest Documentary FilmCartel Land Online Film Critics Society AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Phoenix Critics CircleBest Documentary FilmCartel Land Reykjavik International Film FestivalAudience AwardCartel Land San Diego Film Critics Society AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Satellite AwardsBest Motion Picture, DocumentaryCartel Land Seattle Film Critics AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land Sheffield International Documentary FestivalTim Hetherington AwardCartel Land Grand Jury AwardCartel Land St. Louis Film Critics AssociationBest Documentary FilmCartel Land Stockholm Film FestivalBest DocumentaryCartel Land Sundance Film FestivalSpecial Jury Cinematography Award Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll Directing AwardMatthew Heineman Vancouver Film Critics CircleBest DocumentaryCartel Land Washington DC Area Film Critics Association AwardsBest DocumentaryCartel Land
See also Grupos de Autodefensa Comunitaria Narco Cultura
References
External links
Arizona Border Recon website