"As both a resident of Minneapolis and a film and TV critic, it's been surreal to see my home city become, over the past few weeks, the kind of place you might see in an especially on-the-nose dystopian satire. As thousands of armed, masked ICE agents roam the streets, in SUVs or on foot, everyday Minnesotans have stepped forward to protect their communities. In the aftermath of horrible disasters, survivors often describe the events they witnessed as being like "something out of a movie.""
"Here, as the ICE occupation stretches week after week, with no meaningful de-escalation and no clear end in sight, the movie has become exhaustingly overlong. I walk through empty city streets, past shuttered restaurants, to knock on the locked door of a local burger joint, which is vetting any diners before they'll open the door. I drop my children off at school alongside parents who have essentially become volunteer security guards, standing at bus stops and doors in case ICE agents arrive."
"Anyone following this story knows that the clearest portrait of ICE terrorizing Minneapolis isn't coming from the federal government, the state government, or even the journalists on the ground. It's coming from the legions of everyday Minnesotans who are filming ICE's actions using their cell phones, essentially becoming documentarians in service of a single, vital goal: to tell the truth."
Minneapolis is experiencing a widespread ICE enforcement presence that has altered daily life, with armed, masked agents patrolling streets and prompting closures. Residents have mobilized to protect communities, serving as volunteer guards at schools and businesses. Local daily routines now involve watching for convoys and adapting to vetting procedures at establishments. Cellphone videos recorded by residents are documenting ICE actions and reframing national conversations about immigration. This grassroots documentation draws on earlier patterns of social-media-driven witnessing, linking to protests since 2011 and to local footage of the 2020 killing of George Floyd filmed by a high school student.
Read at Filmmaker Magazine
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