A sort of real-life Sicario, Matthew Heineman’s Oscar-nominated Cartel Land follows the cartel wars on both sides of the American-Mexican border.

In Mexico, small-town doctor Jose Mireles leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years.

Meanwhile, veteran Tim “Nailer” Foley heads a small paramilitary group in Arizona’s Altar Valley - a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley. The group’s goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.

Filmmaker Heineman embeds himself in the heart of darkness as Nailer, El Doctor, and the cartel each vie to bring their own brand of justice to a society where institutions have failed.

Manhattan Productions’ Bradley J. Ross co-produced and edited the feature film and cut the trailer for Heineman’s film.

“Cartel Land has been an incredible journey as co-producer and editor. It really shaped into such a powerful film,” said Ross. “What’s most compelling to me about the movie is how much access director Matt Heineman got and the risks he took to tell the story. He was present during unbelievable moments like meth cooks and gun battles. In one scene, bullets were flying and you can see from the footage that he didn’t even flinch. This was the tip of the iceberg because he recorded around 700 hours of footage. This was the true challenge of editing the film because we had to tell the story in 90 minutes. I was also privileged when Matt approached my company Manhattan Productions to edit/produce all the trailers for the film. To tell the story with just as much emotion in 2:00 was yet another challenge.”

Cartel Land, winner of best director of a documentary and special jury award for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, is now available on Netflix on iTunes.

[Editor’s note: Each year, PromaxBDA awards the year’s best trailers for made-for-TV movies and for theatricals airing on TV services.]

Trailer credits:

Trailer produced and edited by Bradley J. Ross

Film producer: Matt Heineman

Graphics: Ariana Nehmad

Tags:


  Save as PDF