Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller's new documentary short, They're Here, screened at the New York film festival, employs horror film conventions to examine the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis last winter. The 24-minute film, directed by Mueller and Academy Award-winner Poitras, reframes the federal operation through a dystopian lens.
A Dystopian View of Operation Metro Surge
Framed as a story set in an urban tundra, the film follows the Trump administration's border control campaign in Minnesota, officially named Operation Metro Surge. Over three winter months, the Department of Homeland Security moved to remove the Twin Cities' Somali immigrant population and destabilize its progressive political order. The documentary scales down the shock-and-awe campaign to the battlefield, following Minneapolis residents as they evade and resist ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents, with their identities obscured for protection.
The film opens on an overcast, -10F (-23C) day with a woman using the pseudonym "Liz Lemon" on a conference call with community members, tracking an ICE detail patrolling her neighborhood. When agents point at her house, she fumes: "Are you pointing to my house like I don't know where I live? Fuck off!"
Horror as a Tool for Truth
The directors say the film's tone was inspired by a 10-second Instagram post of a winter drive through the woods, featuring honking horns, whistles, and cries to "close your doors" as balaclava-shrouded agents disrupt daily life. "One of the things we're trying to do with this film is put the audience in a position of terror and fear," said Poitras.
The film includes footage of federal agents in gas masks firing smoke bombs after the killing of Alex Pretti, and captures officer Greg Bovino charging into a crowd of protesters. "You hit me with that bike, you're done," the former ICE officer snarls. The source of this footage was a pair of Chicago teenagers tracking the ICE crackdown independently.
Personal Testimony and Historical Context
Scenes from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport show detainees in shackles being herded onto non-commercial airliners, with visuals by plane watcher Nick Benson and data journalist Josh Begley. The film's heart is Edén Villa, a pseudonymous Latin American immigrant heard while being smuggled to work in a car trunk. "It just grows out of this longstanding belief I've had that cinema can help understand moments we're living in," said Poitras.
Mueller noted the history of resistance in Minneapolis, from early labor movements to the American Indian movement, and the uprisings after George Floyd's murder and Philando Castile's killing. "Each one of these pieces builds upon itself," she said. They're Here screened at the New York film festival, with UK, Australia, and further US screenings to be announced.
