(LOS ANGELES, CA – July 15, 2025) Monkey Wrench Films to release one of the most captivating love stories in the new documentary “The Road to Patagonia". This visually beautiful and spiritually uplifting surf film will be in theaters throughout the USA and Canada beginning September 1, 2025.
A 50,000km Surfing Odyssey (+ a Love Story)
Follow ecologist Matty Hannon on an incredible solo adventure as he leaves his life in the city behind for the great outdoors. Surfing his way along the west coast of the Americas, his ambitious voyage takes him from the Alaskan wilderness to the tip of Patagonia. But just as the dangers and isolation of such a trip take their toll, he meets the girl of his dreams, a permaculture farmer, Heather Hillier, who throws caution to the wind and joins Matty on his 50,000km odyssey.
Riding south on motorbike and horseback, worlds collide as the duo encounter Zapatista rebels, Amazonian shamans and Mapuche leaders whose words of truth and sanctity crack the adventurers’ cultural veneer, leaving them with many spiritual questions to answer for themselves. Shot over 16 years, "The Road to Patagonia" is a beautiful and memorable documentation of the untouched natural world which few get to experience fully,and offers a thrilling new perspective on our place within it.
“The Road to Patagonia," was released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment and Garage Films, with Kaleidoscope Distribution handling the UK and European markets. Gross box office totals topped $1.3m in Australia alone. And now, Monkey Wrench Films looks to keep the juggernaut running with over 100 markets planned for the 90 day theatrical window across the United States and Canada.
See where the film is playing at the Monkey Wrench Films website.
“The natural markets for this documentary are obviously mountain resort towns throughout North America," says Henry C. Lystad, co-founder (along with filmmaking veteran Tom Putnam), of Monkey Wrench Films. “However, due to such a strong emphasis on this crazy journey of the Americas coastline, we will definitely play in all the usual surf movie houses. On top of that, we really hope that the love story and vagabond spirit resonates into urban markets throughout the USA and Canada”.
“This movie has so many attributes we look for when acquiring a film. It has a myriad of angles that make it enjoyable for a wide-ranging audience. We are very excited to see where it goes over the next few months!”, says Tom Putnam.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT- “The Road to Patagonia,” is a physical and spiritual odyssey to better understand our place in nature. Not only do I believe in the power of adventure to coax us out of our digital lives – to reconnect ourselves with the Earth and each other – but I believe in the power of an emotive documentary, an immersive experience that inspires the audience into self reflection, awareness and action.
As a verité documentary, “The Road to Patagonia,” includes 16 years of footage of my life. Some moments were difficult to include, due to how personal and vulnerable they were in nature. However overall, I now can see that they were incredibly privileged times to be documented, and despite the film's investigating themes of colonialism and globalisation, it also aims to instill an uplifting sense of hope and positivity in the audience. In a way, I hope it’s a small antidote to the heaviness of the world in recent years."
SYNOPSIS- The Road to Patagonia is a stunning, intimate and unflinching series of love letters within a documentary – first, a love story between two people, and second, between humanity and the Earth.
We follow Matty Hannon on an incredible solo adventure, to surf the west coast of the Americas by motorbike, from the top of Alaska to the tip of Patagonia. But deep in the wilderness – alone with the wolves and the bears – the journeyer’s plans unexpectedly fall to pieces. After losing everything, and on the cusp of quitting, he meets a girl, a permaculture farmer named Heather Hillier who throws caution to the wind and sells her urban-farm to buy a bike of her own.
Together riding south, the duo meet with Zapatista rebels, Amazonian shamans and Mapuche leaders whose words of truth and impact crack the adventurers’ cultural veneer, leaving them with their own existential questions themselves. This 50,000km surfing odyssey becomes beautifully complicated by their decision to downshift from motorcycles to horseback, presenting a relational approach to the breathtaking landscapes and a new host of challenges that ultimately become extremely rewarding.
Hannon and Hillier succeed in capturing deeply human moments during this world-first expedition, and the noticeable lack of camera-crew becomes "The Road to Patagonia"’s strength. The theme of deep ecology underpins the entire film, visually communicated through exquisite cinematography and emotional verité sequences. Shot over 16 years, the result is an adventurous exposé on the more-than-human world, offering a physical and spiritual odyssey to better understand our place in Nature.
To bring “The Road to Patagonia,” to your market contact Monkey Wrench Films directly via info@monkeywrenchfilms.com
ABOUT MONKEY WRENCH FILMS:
Denver & LA-based, with distribution partners in more than a dozen countries, Monkey Wrench Films is making literal and metaphorical waves in the indie film world with multiple award-winning acquisitions and a plethora of feature films in recent distribution. As self-proclaimed “industry disruptors”, Monkey Wrench Films specializes in bringing well-deserved indie films (narrative and documentary) to the big screen and creating post-show buzz in the entertainment industry. Their current and recent feature film slate includes, “Who Is Stan Smith”, from Lebron James’s Uninterrupted studio, the BAFTA Award-winning feature, “The Hermit of Treig”, the much-anticipated followup to “The King of Kong” the 2007 box office wunderkind, “Arcades and Love Songs”, “Geoff Marslett’s “Quantum Cowboys”, starring Lily Gladstone and David Arquette, Tom Putnam’s “The Dark Divide”, starring David Cross and Debra Messing. See their full release lineup at monkeywrenchfilms.com
ABOUT NEVER NEVER STUDIOS:
Matty Hannon has experience producing documentaries in challenging environments across 6 continents. He runs a multi-award winning production company from the middle of a national park on the north coast of NSW. His undergraduate degree in Ecology and several years experience in the fields of conservation and cultural resilience in remote Sumatra led him to pick up a camera, and continues to influence his film work to this day. THE ROAD TO PATAGONIA is his debut feature documentary.
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Media Contact for the Film:
Henry C. Lystad/Monkey Wrench Films
E: henry@monkeywrenchfilms.com
