They're Here

synopsis

This short documentary by Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller captures raids by the US immigration agency ICE in Minneapolis and the neighbourhood resistance networks that are springing up to protect vulnerable communities. Footage from dashcams and mobile phones is complemented by visualisations of detentions and deportations. The use of horror film conventions captures the experience of a city where an ordinary journey to work can be interrupted by a violent raid by masked agents. Concealing the identities of the protagonists highlights the risks involved in filming, as well as in civil disobedience itself. This testimony to state violence is thus also a portrait of solidarity that turns the gaze against those who abuse power.

“The use of concealing the identities of the protagonists becomes also part of the kind of how the film communicates the risks involved.” — Laura Poitras, The Hollywood Reporter

Foto: Tim Evans; Jack Califano.

biography

Laura Poitras (1964) is an Oscar- and Golden Lion-winning American documentary filmmaker whose work has long explored forms of power, surveillance and civil resistance. Rachel Lauren Mueller is a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Minneapolis, where she filmed ICE operations and local resistance.

film details

director:	Laura Poitras, Rachel Lauren Mueller
producer:	Yoni Golijov, Laura Poitras, Rachel Lauren Mueller
photography:	Rachel Lauren Mueller
editing:	Adriana Pacheco (A.C.E), Laura Poitras
music:	Alessandro Cortini
sound design:	César González Cortés, Jesus Arteaga
co-producer:	Adam Mellion

contact

Josh Braun / Submarine
josh@submarine.com