The Territory

The Territory has a good heart, and one can see why foundations and festivals fall for it. Indigenous rights, deforestation, climate change, the producers pulling in (one set of - the agreed-upon, correct set of) subjects as collaborators (to hell with the others). Boxes get checked, an echo chamber is built. What is lost in all that is the need to tell a cohesive, engaging narrative with simply understood facts. Confusion reigns, except that the bad guys are horrible people and the good guys are saints.

So much untold effort and resources go into making a documentary, and watching this it's hard not to appreciate that. But how about we support actual great filmmaking, not feeding poorly conceived righteous indignation. Good starting point for making the argument: "Darwin's Nightmare" and "Honeyland," two masterful documentaries interweaving environmentalism and story.