The Indigenous lands of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people are a protected territory deep in the Brazilian Amazon. Once home to thousands but now inhabited by fewer than 200, the region is often encroached upon by non-Indigenous Brazilian opportunists who mar its forests through illegal logging and invade its land with settler farms. When a network of farmers seize an area of the territory, the nonresponse from the government is clear. “Inspect what? Go and fight the loggers? Fight the invaders?” one public servant asks. “The Indigenous Affairs agency is like shit in the water.” 

Over the course of three years, The Territory closely follows young Indigenous leader Bitaté and environmental activist and mentor Neidinha, as they and the rest of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Surveillance Team seek new ways to defend their land. With unique and intimate access to both the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community and the opposing network of settler farmers, Alex Pritz’s film chronicles the community’s fight against colonial deforestation and agrarian settlement within a climate of anti-Indigenous rhetoric, governmental complicity and environmental destruction. -DB

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