Wilderness

(Yermo)

Everardo González / Mexico / 2020 / 76 min
❮
❯

  • Guadalajara Internacional Film Festival

  • Atlanticdoc Uruguay International Documentary Film Festival

  • SANFIC Santiago International Film Festival

  • Morelia International Film Festival

  • FIDBA Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival

  • Hola Mexico Film Festival USA

Related Films
Hatun Phaqcha, the Healing LandHatun Phaqcha, the Healing Land(Hatun Phaqcha, Tierra Santa)Delia AckermanPeru stands as the cradle of numerous highly nutritious products celebrated globally as ‘superfoods.’ Despite its profound agricultural and ...Nacho Dean. The Sea TravellerNacho Dean. The Sea Traveller(Nacho Dean. El caminante del mar)Miguel Ángel TobíasTraversing mountains, jungles, deserts, and urban landscapes entirely on foot, naturalist and explorer Nacho Dean undertook an extraordinary journey to ...Pacificum, the Return to the OceanPacificum, the Return to the Ocean(Pacificum, el retorno al oceáno)Mariana TschudiAt the beginning of the 21st century, four scientists and marine specialists undertake a series of journeys along the Peruvian Pacific coast—by air, ...Eternal AmazonEternal Amazon(Amazônia Eterna)Belisario FrancaThe Amazon is a vast laboratory for sustainable experiments that are revealing new relationships among human beings, corporations, and the natural ...Amazon MirrorAmazon Mirror(O Reflexo do Lago)Fernando SegtowickIn the 1980s, the military dictatorship in Brazil built the largest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon in the city of Tucuruí in the state of Pará. ...
Pricing
STREAMING LICENSES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: PRAGDA STREAM
3 year DSL license with PPR$449Buy Now
Life of file DSL license with PPR$549Buy Now
K-12, Public Libraries, Community Groups 3 year DSL license$200Buy Now
INQUIRE ABOUT OTHER LICENSES AND/OR DVD AVAILABILITY
Related Subjects
Download

Spanish, English, Arabic, Hindi with English subtitles

An immersive documentary that explores the hidden life of ten deserts across the globe, offering a compelling study of ecology, anthropology, and human resilience.

Through the lens of filmmaker Everardo González—who embedded himself in nomadic communities from Namibia to Mongolia, Australia to the Navajo Nation—this film examines the intricate relationship between people and their environment.

Built on moments of surprise, misunderstanding, and mutual discovery, Wilderness challenges assumptions about barren landscapes, revealing thriving ecosystems and cultures that have sustained life for millennia.

A valuable resource for educators and students, the film fosters discussions on environmental sustainability, indigenous knowledge, and the delicate balance between humans, animals, and nature.

Press

“Yermo portrays human beings in the immensity of deserts.” – Los Angeles Times

“A very personal story with tinges of improvisation that exposes different people and their way of life in places so remote that they seem to live in a different world, specifically in the deserts.” – Octavio Alfaro, SensaCine

“The movie reflects on the documentary genre itself and its alleged objectivity.” – Fernanda Solorzano, Letras Libres

“Everything plays out in absorbing emotional detail.” – Cath Clarke, The Guardian

“The impossibility of communicating with his interlocutors drew the filmmaker to create a film about how those who are used to being filmed see us.” – Arturo Magaña, Cine Premier

About the Director

Everardo González is a Mexican filmmaker known for his work in production, cinematography, and documentary filmmaking. He is one of the most renowned documentary directors in Latin America. His films, including La Canción del Pulque (2003), Los Ladrones Viejos (2007), El Cielo Abierto (2011), Cuates de Australia (2011), El Paso (2015), La Libertad del Diablo (2017), and Una Jauría Llamada Ernesto (2023), have been screened and awarded at major festivals such as IDFA, Toulouse, Los Angeles, Locarno, Miami, Montreal, Sarajevo, Rotterdam, BAFICI, Mar del Plata, Guadalajara, and Morelia, among others.

In addition to directing, González has worked in cinematography for films like Backyard (El Traspatio) by Carlos Carrera and La Jaula de Oro by Diego Quemada, which was nominated at Cannes. Over his career, he has been nominated 11 times for the Ariel Awards, given by the Mexican Film Academy, and has won 8. His work has been showcased in over 40 countries. He also runs his own production and distribution company, Artegios.

Notes on Film

“I received an invitation to visit visual artist Alfredo DeStefano. In principle, the collaboration was to make a behind-the-scenes of his photographic work, he primarily works in landscapes. I started working with him and on the days off I set about portraying people. My work is typically focused more on people. Finally, we realized that what wasn’t initially intended to be a movie, but rather a record of the ways of life in deserts, was turning into cinema. Alfredo agreed to become co-producer and on through editing with Paloma López Carrillo we started to make sense of the images. That’s how Wilderness came to be.

I traveled where the producer would take me. For that reason, the film is put together from a place of ignorance, without pretense. That helped in finding a voice devoid of the arrogance we bring when taking cameras into an unknown and distant world.

It was a very physical experience. The lack of budget forced me to be the director, photographer, sound engineer and my own assistant at the same time. The nomadic life has the extraordinary condition of replicating the most primitive decisions in the history of man. The routes of nomadic life being the same as those of thousands of years ago.”

– Everardo González, Director

❌