[MOVIE]

SAWYER AVENUE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Cast and Credits

M.: Bill Morrison. Prod.: Jamie Kalven, Bill Morrison, María Inés Zamudio, Invisible Institute. DCP.

Film notes

When masked and nameless US Border Patrol agents abduct a man from a residential street in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood without a warrant, his neighbors attempt to obstruct the vehicle carrying him from leaving their block. Beginning in 2025, The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made thousands of warrantless arrests in American cities, targeting people of color in random sweeps. In Chicago, “Operation Midway Blitz”, as it was termed by the department, began in early September and continued through the end of 2025. In October, a group of journalists, media organizations, protesters and clergy members in Chicago brought a lawsuit against then- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, citing multiple first and fourth amendment violations. Body-worn video camera footage was gathered as evidence during discovery, and reviewed by US District Judge Sara Ellis, who wrote a scathing opinion of DHS conduct and reporting. Judge Ellis ordered that all the collected footage be released to the public on 24 November 2025. Continuing the language they developed with their Oscar-nominated short Incident, Bill Morrison, working again with journalist-producer Jamie Kalven, as well as with journalist María Inés Zamudio, pieced together the body-worn footage with the cellphone footage shot by neighbors at the scene, to capture a specific moment in the rise of fascist policing in America.

Copy sourced from

Edition 2026
Film version In English with Italian subtitles
Screenings
25 JUNE 2026 [16:00]
Auditorium DAMSLab