City Cinema: The Road to Patagonia

Documentary. PG language, brief nudity.
Dir: Matty Hannon, Australia, 2024, 91 min.
Matty Hannon, Heather Hillier.
In English, Spanish, and Mentawai with English subtitles.
Award Winner: Best Film, Byron Bay International Film Festival; Audience Choice Award, Florida Surf Film Festival; Audience Choice Award – Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

“Shot over a 16-year period, this engaging documentary chronicles a genuinely epic journey undertaken by Australian film-maker, ecologist and devoted surfer Matty Hannon. Spanning some 50,000km, the route stretches down the western coast of the Americas, beginning in the Alaskan wilderness and heading towards the Patagonia region of South America. The method of travel is motorbikes and then horses, and along for a significant section of the ride is the genial director’s new girlfriend, Canadian organic farmer Heather Hillier. Amid the spectacular natural landscapes and habitats, the film gives a real sense of the difficulties encountered by its participants: there are mechanical breakdowns, robberies, the danger of wild bears and, in places, dwindling water supplies, all of which place a strain on Matty and Heather’s romantic relationship. And, through interviews with Zapatistas in Mexico and Mapuche in Chile, this also highlights how the ecosystems that support indigenous communities are being destroyed.” —Tom Dawson, Radio Times (UK)