Poitras and Mueller Frame ICE Occupation as a Dystopian Nightmare in New Venice Doc
The Oscar-winning filmmaker and Minneapolis journalist Rachel Lauren Mueller co-directed a short documentary about the resistance to ICE's paramilitary occupation of Minneapolis. Using dashcam footage, ground-level filming, and crowdsourced data, the film reconstructs how residents tracked and fought back against masked agents. It draws on horror and sci-fi aesthetics to portray the city's transformation into a dystopian scene, and is screening out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.
The collaboration emerged after the killing of Renée Good, with Mueller residing just blocks from the incident. Poitras, a previous Golden Lion winner, partnered with Mueller, leveraging neighborhood surveillance networks that had evolved from earlier protest infrastructure.
The documentary prioritizes source protection through encrypted communication and crowdsourced data to reconstruct the resistance. It is currently screening at Venice's non-competition strand, with U.S. distribution handled by Submarine Entertainment Sales.
This film could reshape public perception of domestic law enforcement operations by translating raw surveillance footage into a familiar cinematic genre. Audiences may connect more viscerally with residents' plight, potentially influencing civic discourse on immigration enforcement. The Venice platform could amplify these narratives beyond local news, prompting viewers to question the normalization of paramilitary tactics. Its impact may extend to documentary filmmaking, encouraging similar genre-blending approaches to political reporting.