Road to Patagonia

The Client

The Road to Patagonia is the debut feature documentary from ecologist and filmmaker Matty Hannon, produced by Never-Never Studios and released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment and Garage Films. Shot over 16 years, the film follows Matty on a solo adventure to surf the west coast of the Americas by motorbike, from the top of Alaska to the tip of Patagonia. When his plans fall to pieces deep in the wilderness, he meets permaculture farmer Heather Hillier, and together they trade motorbikes for horses on a journey of love, adventure and deep ecology.

The Challenge

With no camera crew, the film was shot by Matty and Heather themselves on a mix of cameras, including the Sony a7S, Canon 5D Mark II and GoPro, across some of the most remote landscapes on Earth. Sixteen years of raw, handheld footage meant huge variation in format, exposure and colour from scene to scene. Ahead of a national theatrical release, the film needed a grade that could bring it all together into one cohesive, cinematic look, without losing the intimacy and honesty of its vérité storytelling.

The Solution

Fotomedia colour graded the film in-house, carefully balancing footage shot across different cameras, countries and years into a unified palette that evolves as Matty travels from north to south. The cool, crisp tones of the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness give way to the warmth and saturated colour of Mexico and Central America, then to the lush greens of the Amazon, before settling into the vast, windswept light of Patagonia. This shifting colour story carries the audience through each stage of the journey, enhancing the depth and beauty of every location while staying true to the raw, personal character of the footage. The Road to Patagonia premiered at the 2022 Byron Bay International Film Festival, winning Best Film, Best Documentary and Best Byron Film, and went on to share Best Documentary Feature at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. It became the highest-grossing Australian documentary of 2024, taking more than $900,000 at the Australian box office.