A new documentary chronicles Chicago under ICE occupation

It’s a typical Monday in Chicago Immigration Court, and filmmakers Fatima Omar and Ian Resnick look on as immigrants seeking asylum or residency clutch their documents and exchange worried looks.

Cameras and recording devices aren’t allowed inside the Downtown building, but the filmmakers think they’ve found another way to document what happens here. They reached out to one of the courtroom sketch artists, Cliff Questel, and observed as he sketched the events of immigration court.

Questel sits next to them, drawing a scene of a mother and her two children as they await instructions from the judge, translated to the room through a Spanish-language interpreter. For the past 12 months, Omar and Resnick have been working on the documentary “Shouldering Sanctuary,” a film that examines Chicago’s response to federal immigration enforcement operations launched here by President Donald Trump. Questel is one of the several individuals they’ve followed along the way, through Downtown courtrooms, across Little Village alongside rapid response teams, and even inside City Hall, as they’ve documented a still-unfolding chapter in Chicago as an immigrant city.

They are part of a small, five-person crew organized by the local production company Truth & Documentary. Spliced with hotseat interviews, bodycam footage and videos from social media, scenes from the still-in-progress “Shouldering Sanctuary” will screen at the Edge Theater in Edgewater (5451 N. Broadway) on Thursday.

“When we think about the projects we're going to do, it's always with an eye towards what we're positioned to do with the format of documentary,” said Ben Kolak, who manages the Chinatown-based production company and hopes the film provides a more nuanced, grounded perspective.

“Having more space for characterization, for the viscerality that cinema allows, it can often make something that moves people,” he said. “That's really what we aim for in our work to hopefully get people to rethink how they see themselves, their community.”

Production for the documentary is ongoing. But Kolak and his team plan to use the Thursday screening to test the audience’s reaction, in particular to some heavier scenes, such as one that shows an ICE agent chasing after a man who says he ran because of “fear.”

Chicago’s story began to appeal to the Truth & Documentary team after Trump was sworn in and began enacting sweeping executive orders on immigration. “This is something that we're well-positioned and networked to try to document,” Kolak said. Everything is a team effort, he added, especially with college interns and recent graduates making up the majority of the group.

In moments of “Shouldering Sanctuary,” the crew takes viewers along for a ride with Ald. Andre Vasquez as he meets with constituents. They sit in the pews at the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, where the Rev. David Black recounts being hit with a pepper ball outside of the Broadview detention center while protesters opposed intensified immigration enforcement. Production crews even catch up with outspoken attorney Rachel Cohen and the pro-Trump restaurateur behind Moe’s Cantina, Sam Sanchez, who calls himself a “political strategist” and says he’s pushed the Trump administration to consider “common-sense immigration reform.”

Together, the scenes illustrate the power of film in portraying not just what happens in City Hall and Washington, D.C., but a complete look at the individuals and workers impacted by the White House’s still-evolving deportation campaign.

Questel’s drawings, for example, help paint a clearer picture of courtroom proceedings for people who’ve never set foot in an immigration courtroom, Omar said. “It is mysterious and lots of people don’t know what goes on there. It provides something more dynamic and adds texture to the scene.”

Earlier this week, the filmmakers said they might animate the drawings for the documentary. In just a day of drawings, Questel, who took up court sketching in 2019, completed a portrait of Judge Marc Stahl as he presides over hearings; chronicled the individuals who filed into the court speaking Spanish Creole, Uzbek or Chinese; and captured a moment where a person stood still as a security guard passed a metal detector over his body.

Questel, 63, said he likes the “excitement” the job brings, and though he’s drawn some high-profile cases, he’s mostly “interested in documenting how the court works and what happens.”

Before “Shouldering Sanctuary” premieres, attendees will get to learn from the past with a special screening of “Between Uncertainty and Hope,” a 21-minute documentary film directed by Mirko Popadic, about the Chicagoans who protested immigration raids in 1988.

The screenings will be followed by a discussion with local politicians and advocates, including Ald. Jessie Fuentes, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and representatives from Belmont Cragin United and Organized Communities Against Deportations. The Truth & Documentary team hopes their films are used as educational tools or by others chronicling this era, Kolak said. Clips from the documentary will be easily accessible on their YouTube channel, in addition to living on the Media Burn Archive website.

Tickets can be reserved for free online. In place of sales, Truth & Documentary is asking for donations to families or individuals impacted by ICE operations.

The filmmakers aren’t sure what will make it into the final cut, but the completed film is set to be finished by spring. In the meantime, they’re wrestling with how to portray ordinary members of the public when the stakes are so high. They’re also looking for moments of humanity and community as tactics change and information gets diluted.

“The one beautiful thing is that the resistance has really changed and grown so much,” Omar said, referencing the way the sounds of whistles have become a ubiquitous warning for the community. “Just the amount of people that are trying to keep their neighborhoods safe, and in pretty innovative ways, is very beautiful.”