University Calendar

THE TERRITORY provides an immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers in the Brazilian Amazon. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-eu-wau-wau community and provides unprecedented access to the farmers and settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land. Partially shot by the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, the film relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth.

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Alex Pritz is a documentary filmmaker based in New York City.  Recently, Alex directed The Territory, which premiered in the World Cinema competition at Sundance 2022 where it won both the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft. The Territory was shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards, nominated for three Critics Choice awards, a Gotham Award, a Producers Guild Award, and seven Cinema Eye Honors where it won for Best Debut Feature. The Territory was named a NYT Critics Pick, and IndieWire described the film as, “Gorgeously and sometimes ingeniously conceived, painting an intimate first-hand portrait of joy, pain, and community, before bursting with rip-roaring intensity as it captures a high-stakes struggle for survival unfolding in the moment.” The Territory was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films and was released theatrically in the United States, Canada, the UK, Brazil, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the Netherlands. 

Alex won an Emmy for his work as a cinematographer on the feature documentary The First Wave (dir. Matt Heineman). He was also a cinematographer and field producer on Jon Kasbe’s feature documentary, When Lambs Become Lions (Tribeca 2018), and a co-director, cinematographer, and editor on the documentary short, My Dear Kyrgyzstan (Atlanta 2019). Alex is a co-founder of Documist, and has received grants from the Sundance Institute, IDA Enterprise Fund, Catapult Fund, Doc Society, and was named a 2023 BAFTA Breakthrough Fellow. 

Alex holds a B.Sc. (Ag. & Env.) from McGill University where he studied Environmental Science and Philosophy. In 2012, he received an inaugural Dalai Lama Fellowship for his work developing film curriculums alongside low-income communities in the Philippines.