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"Ride-along documentaries don't get any more dangerous than Matthew Heineman's Cartel Land, a chilling cross-border exploration of vigilantes trying to fight a drug war their governments can't win on their own." – The Dissolve
Given startling access that results in jaw-dropping footage – live fire, a gunpoint interrogation in the back of a car and more – Matthew Heineman offers a searing take on vigilantism in Cartel Land, his "21st-century western" of two groups and their shared enemy: the murderous Mexican drug cartels.
In Mexico, Dr Jose "El Doctor" Mireles leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley, Tim "Nailer" Foley heads a small paramilitary group that wants to stop Mexico's drug wars seeping across the border.
Winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography: US Documentary as well as the US Documentary Directing award at Sundance, Cartel Land poses deep questions about lawlessness, the breakdown of order, and whether it is just for citizens to take up arms to fight violence with violence.
"An astonishing journalistic achievement." – Twitch
