On November 4, the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) online meeting featured the conversation, Truth or Dare: Spotlight on Director Laura Poitras.
During a conversation moderated by Director Marilyn Agrelo (Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street), Poitras spoke about the making of her new short documentary, They’re Here, an account of the ICE raids in Minnesota as seen and documented through the eyes of its citizens.
“I was in New York when Renee Good was executed by ICE in Minnesota. I had done work with an organization that worked on capturing events as it was happening, so I started working with my Co-Director, Rachel Lauren Mueller, who was filming without knowing what we were doing but knowing that we needed to document this. How can cinema be used to de-normalize the violence in relation to what we were seeing in our streets. I had a feeling it would be a short because of the urgency. Also, because we didn't want the immigrant community we featured to be on camera. If the material had lent itself to be longer, it might have been.”
In addition to They’re Here, Poitras’ directorial credits include the DGA Award-nominated documentaries, Cover-Up, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; the Academy Award-nominated, Pulitzer Prize-winning documentary, My Country, My Country; and the Oscar and DGA Award-winning film, Citizenfour. Poitras has been a DGA member since 2024 and serves on the Eastern Directors Council.
About the Committee:
Originally a sub-committee of the Eastern Directors Council, in 2020 the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) was designated an official and permanent committee of the DGA National Board for women members residing in the Eastern Region. The Committee would like to remind members that while their events are designed with a special focus on women Directors, all DGA members are welcome to attend.
