They’re Here, a new short documentary co-directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and Minneapolis-based journalist Rachel Lauren Mueller, examines Immigration Customs Enforcement operations in the Minneapolis area. The film uses dashcam footage, ground-level cinematography, and crowdsourced data visualizations to document how residents organized resistance networks and documentation efforts to track and counter ICE agents. The production employed various protective measures including encryption, anonymization, redaction, and identity concealment to safeguard the individuals featured.
The collaboration between Poitras and Mueller emerged through a mutual colleague and came together with a sense of urgency regarding documentation of ICE activities. Mueller’s position as a South Minneapolis resident proved instrumental in gaining access to neighborhood surveillance and mutual aid groups that had organically formed in response to the enforcement actions. These groups had roots in organizing infrastructure that developed following earlier events in the community. The filmmakers conducted principal shooting from early January through March, with additional footage from December.
In discussing their approach, Poitras and Mueller emphasized their belief that cinematic storytelling could communicate differently than news coverage, which they felt risked normalizing the depicted violence through repetition. The filmmakers deliberately adopted visual language from horror and science fiction cinema to convey the reality of the situation rather than distance viewers from it. Drawing inspiration from dystopian films like Children of Men, they employed genre conventions to reflect contemporary realities and shift audience perspective.
They’re Here marks Poitras’s first project following her documentary about photographer Nan Goldin, which received recognition at film festivals in 2022. Poitras previously won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2015 for Citizenfour, her film examining Edward Snowden and NSA surveillance disclosures. The film is screening in Venice Open, the festival’s nonfiction and special-presentation section, with Submarine Entertainment Sales handling United States distribution rights.
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