NatGeo’s “The Territory,” about the courageous struggle of indigenous Brazilian groups to protect their land, wins an Emmy for outstanding performance

The makers of National Geographic The territory celebrate their win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking, one of the most prestigious awards in nonfiction.

The award, awarded by a special jury, was shared by director and producer Alex Pritz, producers Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida and Lizzie Gillett, and executive producer Txai Suruí. Her film focuses on the Uru-eu-wau-wau indigenous people, who are constantly under attack as they try to protect their territory in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest from invasion by outsiders. As Deadline previously wrote about the film, these invaders are “burning large swathes of the rainforest for mining, logging, clearing land for livestock and housing”.

The film also makes clear what is at stake when every hectare of Brazilian rainforest goes up in smoke: the ecological health of the earth is at stake.

“It’s an incredible honor to receive recognition from our peers alongside such an incredible group of nominees,” Pritz told Deadline after his Emmy win. “We share this award with communities around the world who are committed to the long-term habitability of our planet and fight for a better future.”

Attendees at Sunday night’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony included Neidinha Bandeira, a defender of the Uru-eu-wau-wau and one of the main characters in the documentary. She previously told Deadline: “The Uru-eu-wau-wau indigenous territory is important to the entire planet because of its nature and biodiversity and because it combats climate change.”

Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau, an emerging leader of his indigenous group, also attended the Emmy ceremony. He was involved in the film and played an active role in teaching his people how to shoot and edit videos so that they could be better represented in media coverage of their country.

In an interview with Deadline last year, Bitaté said this The territory“It brings out the struggle of my people. It shows the world the situation in which we live. We know that the challenge we face – which we have always faced on our territory – is now present in the world beyond Brazil. People are talking about it. I have a very good feeling about it.” He added: “We also call on the Brazilian government to protect all our regions and communities. “We need help not only here in my community, but in all our indigenous areas.”

The territory features extraordinary aerial photography that allows viewers to see how much of the rainforest is being eaten, from the life beneath the remaining canopy to the almost imperceptible movements of insects.

“I really wanted to be able to visually switch between the big and the small, because this story is about the climate and the planet and these really enormous forces, the rise of populist authoritarianism and these enormous themes — manifest destiny,” Pritz shared. Deadline earlier. “But it’s also about the individual characters… and we wanted to make a film that could move between the forces at the macro level and the people at the micro level and the regional conflicts that it embodies. We’re trying to develop a visual language where we can switch between satellite images of the continent, where you can see over 30 years how many trees have been lost and what they actually look like, and then go all the way down to what I look like to see a caterpillar and I just concentrate on that.”

Co-nominees in the “Extraordinary Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking” category are included Last flight homeDirector and Producer: Ondi Timoner, Producer: David Turner; The Accused: Damned or Sanctified?Directed and produced by Mohammed Ali Naqvi, and AftershocksDirected and produced by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee.

According to the TV Academy, the purpose of the Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Film Award is to “recognize and promote profound social impact, significant innovation in form and remarkable mastery of film technique.” The TV Academy rules state: “All candidates for this jury award [are] required to submit a written statement expressing the qualification of the program as a documentary film of exceptional quality.