Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras premiered a new documentary at the Venice Film Festival Monday examining the resistance movement that formed in Minneapolis against a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation last winter. “They’re Here,” co-directed with Minneapolis-based journalist Rachel Lauren Mueller, chronicles Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security deployment that sent thousands of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents into the Twin Cities between December 2025 and February 2026.
The 25-minute film follows Edén Villa and other Minneapolis residents who tracked and documented ICE agents during the operation, using dashcam footage, ground-level filming and crowdsourced data. Poitras and Mueller shot the film in the visual language of horror and dystopian science fiction, depicting masked agents moving through snowy residential streets while families hid children in car trunks to reach work safely.
Speaking ahead of the premiere, Poitras said she and Mueller felt urgency about documenting the operation because mainstream coverage risked normalizing what was happening. “What we’re seeing in the United States is a nightmare,” she said, adding that she wanted audiences to feel the fear residents experienced. Mueller, who lives blocks from where one shooting occurred, said existing neighborhood networks built during earlier protests over the killing of George Floyd quickly reorganized into groups that monitored ICE movements and warned residents.
Operation Metro Surge drew national attention after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and wounded a third man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, during the deployment. Federal officials said they would not pursue a federal investigation into Good’s shooting. Minnesota’s attorney general and the Hennepin County attorney sued the federal government for access to evidence, and prosecutors say that material, including body-camera footage, is now under review, with no charging decision made. Border czar Tom Homan announced the operation’s drawdown in February, though the attorney representing Good’s family said accountability remains unresolved regardless of where agents are redeployed next.
“They’re Here” marks Poitras’ first project since her 2022 Golden Lion winner “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” which later earned an Academy Award nomination. The film screened out of competition at Venice’s 83rd edition.
