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Notes on Courtwatch
Directed by: Kate Levy | 11 mins
In early summer of 2025, when ICE officials began detaining asylum seekers at their hearings, an ad-hoc network of New Yorkers began showing up to the Kafkaesque court houses to bear witness and provide accompaniment. Through the ruminations of courtwatchers and striking visuals of the city, Notes on Courtwatch explores the dissonance between everyday life and the largely hidden violence inside immigration court. The film speaks to the power and limitations of bonds forged in hostile spaces, and offers a glimpse into ways people support their neighbors in an increasingly repressive political landscape.
ICED out of America
Directed by: Michael Nigro | 22 mins
This is the harvesting of human beings — for profit — documented in real time. For nearly a year, masked federal officers have been arresting and disappearing immigrants attending their mandatory asylum court dates. This has been happening across the United States. But it is only in New York City, where photojournalists have fought to maintain their First Amendment right, and have been able to witness and document the chaotic, cruel, and often violent breach of due process occurring daily in NYC’s immigration courts.
Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon
Directed by: Bill Morrison | 18 mins
When masked US Customs and Border Protection agents abduct a man from a residential street in Chicago without a warrant, his neighbors attempt to obstruct the vehicle from leaving their block. Continuing the form and language they developed with their Oscar-nominated short “Incident”, director Bill Morrison, working with journalist-producers Jamie Kalven and María Inés Zamudio, combined CBP body camera with protesters’ mobile phone footage to capture a specific moment in the rise of fascist policing in America.
Water Cooler
Directed by: Emma V.F. | 12 mins
The Trump administration has turned immigration courts into deportation traps. As ICE agents wait to arrest their targets outside of courtrooms, their banal conversations clash with the severity of their actions.
Love Thy Neighbor
Directed by: Isabella Urrutia | 9 mins
Witness a day in the life of Casa De Paz workers as they support newly released individuals.
Dates & Times
Hi-Pointe Theatre
November 15, 2026
3:30 pm
