This July, VICE will partner with The Orchard to promote the release of 'Cartel Land' — a Sundance Award-winning documentary about two Mexican vigilante groups and their shared enemy, the drug cartels who wreak havoc on their towns. Filmmaker Matthew Heineman and Executive Producer Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero DarkThirty) get a visceral, on-the-ground look at the a citizen uprising in the Mexican state of Michoacán who are fighting off the violent Knights Templar cartel, and also head to Arizona, where an American veteran is leading a small paramilitary group to make sure Mexico's drug wars don't seep across the border.
The documentary is a gripping look at the ways people have come together to maintain justice after larger institutions have crumbled and left them behind. Heineman received both the 2015 Sundance Directing Award as well as the Special Jury Award for Cinematography in the US Documentary competition, and we are proud to help get the film the notice it deserves.