Jeremy C. Processing

experience it, process it

Tag: spirits in balance

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 June 2025
No Comments on The Road to Patagonia
Sticky post

Directed by Matty Hannon
Certificate 15
90 minutes
Released 27 June

In his mid-20s, former ecology student and keen surfer Matty Hannon returns to Melbourne, Australia. For five years, from age 21 to 26, he has lived alongside one of Indonesia’s Sumatran Island tribes, a utopia where people live in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. And then there are the waves.

Melbourne hits him with culture shock; a culture that refers to its people as consumers, where national success is measured in terms of how much they buy. Depression is common. Hannon records his response in this documentary as he gets out, takes a tent to Alaska, then… on his motorbike… travels down the West Coast of the Americas to Patagonia… [read the rest in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform]

[Read my longer review for this site here.]

Subscribe to Reform

Trailer:

Tags 14 months, abattoir, age 21-26, Alaska, alternative lifestyle, Amazon rainforest, animism, Australia, Baja California, Baja Peninsula, balance, bike, bike theft, biker, breathtaking vistas, butcher, California, Canada, ceremony, Chile, civilisation collapse, clearing the jungle, commodification, commodified, community, computer, consumer culture, consumers, culture shock, depression, desert, destroying the ecosystem, Developed World, ecology, environmental impact, farming, fertilise the land, fuel, harmony with nature, Heather Hillier, home-built rig, horses as fellow spirits, Inca pyramids, inspiring, interconnectedness of living things, journey, landscape, letter-writing, lifestyle, living in the wild, local customers, Matty Hannon, Melbourne, Mexico, missing something, motorbike, Patagonia, plant medicines, population density, possessions, pre-packaged jobs, raise a family, reliance on motor fuel, respect, ride the waves, robbed, simple lifestyle, small farm, Southbound, spirit gods, spirits in balance, sprits, student, success measurement, surfboard, surfer, sustainable farm, sustainable future, tent, The Road to Patagonia, trade bikes for horses, travel, unspoiled beaches, US, utopia, Vancouver, voice-over, West coast of the Americas, work, work on computer

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Director – Matty Hannon – 2022 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 90m

****

A keen surfer and former ecology student from Australia sets out on a motorbike journey from Alaska down the West coast of the Americas to Patagonia – screening exclusively on the Icon Channel from Friday, May 30th and in UK cinemas on Friday, June 27th

The family of Australian moving picture diarist Matty Hannon moved around a lot during his childhood. He left home as soon as he could, and studied ecology at university, where he became fascinated by the book Shamans of Mentawai about tribes living in Indonesia’s Sumatran Islands. A keen surfer, he went out to one of the islands, rode the incredible waves, embraced a simple lifestyle and felt he’d arrived in a utopia where people lived in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. He began to wonder if by concentrating on data in his studies, he’d been missing something. He stayed five years, from age 21-26.

On his return to Melbourne, he was hit by culture shock. Everything was commodified. He sat at a computer for work. He was now in a culture that referred to its people as consumers, where national success was measured in terms of how much they bought.… Read the rest

Tags 14 months, abattoir, age 21-26, Alaska, alternative lifestyle, Amazon rainforest, animism, Australia, Baja California, Baja Peninsula, bike, bike theft, biker, book, breathtaking vistas, butcher, California, Canada, ceremony, Chile, civilisation collapse, clearing the jungle, commodification, commodified, community, computer, consumer culture, consumers, corporations, culture shock, data, depression, desert, destroying the ecosystem, Developed World, ecology, environmental impact, farming, fertilise the land, First Nation Peoples, fuel, harmony with nature, Heather Hillier, home-built rig, horses as fellow spirits, Inca pyramids, Indonesia, inspiring, interconnectedness of living things, journey, landscape, leave home, letter-writing, lifestyle, living in the wild, local customers, local resistance, malaise, Matty Hannon, Melbourne, Mexico, missing something, motorbike, mountain god, mountains, Patagonia, plant medicines, population density, possessions, pre-packaged jobs, profit before environment, pulp mill, raise a family, reliance on motor fuel, respect, ride the waves, river god, rivers, robbed by cops, Shamans of Mentawai, simple lifestyle, small farm, Southbound, spirit gods, spirits in balance, student, studies, success measurement, Sumatran Islands, Suna Beach, surfboard, surfer, sustainable farm, sustainable future, symptomatic, tent, The Road to Patagonia, toxic pollution, trade bikes for horses, travel, tribe, university, unspoiled beaches, US, utopia, Vancouver, voice-over, waves, well-being, West coast of the Americas, work, work on computer