The Road to Patagonia

A travelogue, an eco doc, an adventure movie and a love story, The Road to Patagonia has touch points for just about everyone. Our first person narrator and cameraman is Matty Hannon, an Australian ecologist who drops out of professional life to get back in touch with something meaningful. After a spell living with an indigenous tribe in Indonesia he finds himself in Alaska, and sets out on a motorcycle (and surfboard) journey of discovery, 50,000 km down the Pacific coast. But an encounter with a Vancouver Island permaculture farmer, Heather Hillier, will have a profound impact on his expedition…

Drawing from some 16 years of footage, the film isn’t short on incident or spectacular scenery. Hannon certainly goes through ups and downs. A decision to swap motorbikes for horses proves especially consequential. Interviews with people he encounters along the way, many of them indigenous (Zapatista rebels, Amazonian shamans, Mapuche leaders) fighting a rearguard action against various extractive industries add a political edge to what becomes a kind of pilgrimage.

On a big screen, with the cinematography glowing the way it should and Daniel Norgren’s unexpectedly excellent soundtrack playing over some decent speakers, The Road to Patagonia is a pretty rhapsodic way to spend 90 minutes of your life.

Graeme Tuckett, The Post (NZ)

A charmer, full of wonder at the world.

Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

Hannon’s feature debut embraces the possibility of the open road with full-hearted passion. His diaristic film documents his travels with the centrepiece being an astonishing journey from Alaska to Patagonia – first on motorbike, then on horse. Driven by an awe for natural beauty, the documentary also reveals its fragility, as new development in Chile and elsewhere threatens to drain rivers and wipe out whole forests.

Phuong Le, The Guardian