PLACA presents the film: Cartel Land (2015)

Cartel Land (2015) - Special Screening and Q&A with Director Matthew Heineman

Cartel Land is a riveting documentary that follows the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley – a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley – Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.

We will have a special screening of film, followed by a discussion with the documentary's director, Matthew Heineman, who embedded himself with Mireles and Nailer for a year. Since its premiere in July, Cartel Land has garnered critical praise and accolades, including winning both the Directing Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography in the U.S. Documentary competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Pizza and Soda will be Served

Sponsored by the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Documentary Film and History Program, Department of History, and the Department of Anthropoly