Rating: PG | Runtime: 85 minutes
Release Date: August 19th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: National Geographic Documentary Films
Director(s): Alex Pritz

I believe the Amazon is the heart not just of Brazil, but the whole world.

Alex Pritz’s The Territory is a very good introduction into the plight of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau (or Jupaú) in Rondônia. As described in the film, their government-sanctioned legally-bound territory has become an “island of rainforest in a sea of farmland.”

Invaders (entitled Brazilians who believe they are owed land) have been burning and cutting down their trees ever since “first-contact” in the 1980s, but deforestation more than doubled when Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency due to his anti-Indigenous rhetoric. Farmers were suddenly emboldened with the notion that the government would now sanction their looting of the Jupaú. And if that was the case, who was working to protect the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau’s rights to preserve that land?

The answer is exactly what you think: nobody. It’s been that way forever in every country built by colonial conquest and rule. Treaties are made to let indigenous people live in “peace” and then the inevitable squandering of their own resources leads the invaders to want to change the rules.

Because it’s not exactly about rights or ownership like capitalists would like you to believe. It’s about racial supremacy. As the farmer that Pritz’s film crew follows says, “What do less than two hundred Jupaú people need with all that land.” He calls it unfair and decides it’s his right to take what’s theirs before stating he’d then defend what was taken as his. The hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Pritz follows this farmer and a settler as they talk big with their presumed government backing while showcasing the work done by Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau (the newly elected nineteen-year-old leader of their people) and Neidinha Bandeira (a Brazilian activist devoting her life to preserving this rainforest).

One side selfishly talks about building Brazil with new crops by destroying forests that aren’t theirs to destroy. The other side debates a response while considering the complex ramifications (killing the invaders will only strengthen white opposition). It means something to therefore see this conflict unfold with undeniable video evidence. Bitaté pushes his village towards technological advancements that allow them to protect themselves since the government won’t.

It’s a compelling narrative with gorgeous cinematography that humanizes the insane destruction of our world’s lungs (let alone potential for medicines hidden within those trees). Pritz focuses on his quartet of subjects (two invaders with differing opinions on how to steal and two activists representing the Jupaú and their white allies) to set the stage and give voice to what’s happening.

Not that we should have needed this film to realize everything the farmer and settler says is damning and criminal. The additional context only prevents the willfully obtuse from feigning ignorance. Because by the farmers’ own hate-fueled beliefs, property only exists for whites. So, Bitaté looks to remind them of their own rules.

---

A still from THE TERRITORY; courtesy of National Geographic Films.