--- title: "Cartel Land" Documentary Tells the Story of Vigilante Border Justice description: Director Matthew Heineman set out to put a human face on the drug war taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border. canonical: https://time.com/3829241/cartel-land-clip-sundance/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-21T15:04:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:29.186Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Exclusive: Watch a Clip From Modern-Day Vigilante Documentary "Cartel Land" og:description: Director Matthew Heineman set out to put a human face on the drug war taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border. og:url: https://time.com/3829241/cartel-land-clip-sundance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e191fddbe4e2935/6987ec1735ba6f1f7cc0af8b/cartel-land.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: cartel-land og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Exclusive: Watch a Clip From Modern-Day Vigilante Documentary "Cartel Land" twitter:description: Director Matthew Heineman set out to put a human face on the drug war taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e191fddbe4e2935/6987ec1735ba6f1f7cc0af8b/cartel-land.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Exclusive: Watch a Clip From Modern-Day Vigilante Documentary _Cartel Land_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 21, 2015 3:04 PM UTC  Matthew Heineman  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 21, 2015 3:04 PM UTC North of the border in a rural area in Arizona lives a 55-year-old American man. Far south of the border, in the Michoacán region of Mexico, lives a Mexican man of the same age. Each one has embarked on a vigilante mission to protect his family and his country from violent drug cartels—the common enemy that both feel their governments have left them to fight on their own. Matthew Heineman’s award-winning documentary [_Cartel Land_](http://cartellandmovie.com/) begins and ends in a meth lab. Between those bookends, the film immerses viewers in a world of shoot-outs and torture, scenes so dark that even Heineman says he couldn’t have imagined them when he set out to make the film. They were “vivid places,” he says, “that I never had dreamed of and wasn’t necessarily prepared for.” Heineman initially set out to capture vigilantism on the American side of the border, after becoming obsessed with the subject in a _Rolling Stone_ article he chanced upon while riding the subway. But several months into filming, his father sent him an article that described the _autodefensas_ pursuing the same goal from south of the border. What originally presented itself as a parallel story gradually revealed itself to be two similar stories set against starkly different backdrops. “In Arizona there are not shoot-outs in the middle of the streets, there aren’t bodies hanging from bridges,” Heineman explains. “We as Americans don’t really recognize that there’s a war going on in the country just south of us, and we are largely responsible for that war. I wanted to put a human face to people standing up against this conflict and a human face to the cartels themselves.” But the story the film tells isn’t the simple heroes-and-villains tale he originally set out to make. The more time he spent on the border, the more once-simple contrasts devolved into shades of gray. “I ended up with a story that was much different than the story I started with,” he says. “It unraveled in a way that I never could have expected.” _Cartel Land_, which won awards at Sundance for documentary feature directing and cinematography, debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday and hits U.S. movie theaters in July. ### Cartels and Vigilantes Clash in Mexico: Photographs by Jerome Sessini  Jan. 11, 2014\. A gunman working for the Knights Templar cartel shot dead by vigilantes in the town of Antœnez, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 4, 2014\. A vigilante gunman in Paracuaro, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Dec. 29, 2013\. Caught between fear and surprise, the people of Poturo, Michoac‡n, gather in the main square to listen to the speech of JosŽ Manuel Mireles Valverde, who had just seized their village with 150 armed men. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. Vigilantes engage in a three-hour gunfight with the Knights Templar cartel in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 6, 2014\. Vigilantes set up barricades and a checkpoint to search cars at the main entrance to the town of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 5, 2014\. A Knights Templar gunman shot dead by vigilantes during a 40-minute shootout at the entrance of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 5, 2014\. Vigilantes stand at the site where JosŽ Manuel Mireles Valverde's plane crashed earlier in the week in Zicuir‡n, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. Vigilantes enter a house where a sniper for the Knights Templar cartel had been shooting from during a three-hour gunfight in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. A "Puntero," or watchman, working for the Knights Templar cartel is detained by vigilantes in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n, Mexico. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 12, 2014\. Municipal policemen are detained in cells by vigilantes who have just seized town hall in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 5, 2014\. Vigilantes advance upon the town of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 5, 2014\. Downtown Paracuaro, Michoac‡n, appears deserted after vigilantes arrive. Jerome Sessini—Magnum  Jan. 13, 2014\. A vigilante inside the house of Enrique Plancarte Sol’s in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Sol’s is one of the most wanted Knights Templar leaders. 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