Minneapolis
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Minnesota Fierce: Documentary Filmmaker Joua Lee Grande Reports From Operation Metro Surge
Though Joua Lee Grande studied cinema and media culture in college, she built much of her early career in nonprofits based in the Twin Cities. “I was mentoring young people about how they should follow their dreams, and I was like, I should take my own advice,” says Grande. “You’ve got to walk the walk at some point.” In the years that followed, Grande established herself as a documentarian with a vital foothold in Minnesota’s underrepresented communities. Her films include On All Fronts, a short documentary about a Black-Indonesian family navigating the chaos of living in Minneapolis in 2020, and […]
by Scott Meslow on Apr 30, 2026 -
How Phone-Camera Vérité Defeated Action-Flick Propaganda in the War to Define Minneapolis
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 […]
by Scott Meslow on Feb 4, 2026
