Still: The Border Crosses Us - Loretta van der Horst

Many TV cop dramas and movies have been set on the border between the US and Mexico but few have dealt with border life in as probing and insightful a way as Loretta van der Horst’s new feature documentary The Border Crossed Us**, a world premiere in IDFA’s Frontlight section.

This isn’t the first time van der Horst has been involved in a border story. Years ago, she worked on Bones With a Story, a Discovery Channel film “about the disappearances and forensics [teams] identifying bones on the [US/Mexico) border,” the Honduras-born Dutch-American filmmaker reminisces. 

Her Behind the Blood** (2019), which also premiered at IDFA, followed three characters in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, one of the world’s most violent cities. “My background academically is conflict studies and human rights. I decided at the time that I wanted to focus on why it [the city] was so violent. While making the film, many people were fleeing Honduras to the US, crossing the border illegally… and for a while there was so much news coverage about the migrant caravans. But it’s a much more structural issue. That made me wonder - who and what do they encounter when they actually cross the border?”

That question is what ultimately prompted van der Horst to make The Border Crossed Us. She started work on the project with no preconceptions about what she might find out. She simply knew she wanted to speak to as many people as possible. During her research, she discovered that local police departments were being given grants to police the border alongside the federal Border Patrol Agency. What’s more, she was keen to find out what it means when a border has to be enforced at all costs. That’s what led her to the cops working in the border town, La Joya, Texas, who are tasked with catching human smugglers. 

“I was fascinated by the dynamics of that…what does it mean for individual police officers to be doing that work?”

The officers are sympathetic to the illegal immigrants - but that didn’t stop them making arrests when necessary. The officers are working within an immigration system that is broken, resulting in them justifying behavior that may contradict their personal values. The officer’s Mexican roots - the south of Texas used to be part of Mexico - adds another layer of complexity. “For me, coming from the outside, I could imagine there would be moral dilemmas,” the director stresses.

One of the main characters in the film is Lieutenant Manuel Casas, a likeable and sympathetic officer who nonetheless adopts a hard stance against illegal border crossers.

“He is a perfect example of how people can have complete contradictions within themselves…he is both human and a police officer, so there are two faces to him,” van der Horst says of the seemingly tough cop. He and other officers talked how they can go into “tunnel vision” during high-speed pursuits chasing smugglers. A state where the officer only sees what’s in front of them, with total focus on the target. There is an analogy to be made with the job itself, which doesn’t allow for questions of conscience.

Although the documentary focuses on the cops, van der Horst never loses sight of the immigrants coming across the border, hoping for a better life. 

The project was interrupted by Covid. The director had originally planned to shoot at another police station but eventually, after the pandemic died down, encountered Chief Ramon Gonzalez from La Joya. She explained to him her ambitions for the documentary. She wasn’t a “journalist coming in for a day” and looking for “fast, sensationalistic news.” She wanted to spend time in the station and get to know the officers.

The police officers quickly realised that van der Horst was committed for the long term. They accepted her presence and were remarkably open to her. She told them about borders in Europe and how they resembled the one between the US and Mexico. This appealed to Gonzalez who had an academic background and could see that van der Horst’s research was serious.

The documentary was entirely Dutch financed. It was produced through Tangerine Tree, the company behind recent doc hits like Shabu* and Outside*. Amstelfilm is on board to handle the Dutch release, set for June 2024. World sales are handled by Journeyman Pictures.

IDFA takes place on November 8 - 19. For an overview of Dutch docs selected for IDFA 2023, inlcuding screening schedule, click here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Production Incentive