Netflix’s controversial ‘Immigration Nation’ directed by Israeli
Anew documentary series, Immigration Nation, about the migrant crisis in the US, set to air on August 3 on Netflix, was codirected by an Israeli, Shaul Schwarz, and has been the focus of controversy even before its release.
Schwarz, who directed the series with his partner, Christina Clusiau, has made several acclaimed documentaries, including the award-winning Aida’s Secrets, about a man born in a Nazi concentration camp who meets his mother late in his life, which Schwarz directed with his brother, Alon Schwarz.
Immigration Nation is an unusual project and bound to attract a great deal of interest because Schwarz and Clusiau were embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who are filmed in candid interviews and unguarded moments that, at least in the trailer, do not show them in the best light.
“I don’t care what you do, but bring at least two people,” a supervisor on speakerphone tells an ICE officer in the field in the trailer.
A New York Times article published on July 23 reported that ICE had threatened the filmmakers and told them that the agency would block the release of the film if certain scenes were not deleted. The filmmakers had a contract with ICE that allowed the organization to review the series and ask for factual errors and a few other elements to be changed. But the Times article indicated that ICE was unhappy with its portrayal in general and sought to block the release of Immigration Nation.
However, a source involved with the production told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the dispute had been resolved and that the series would be released in early August as planned.
Schwarz is also a photographer known for his news and nature photography, which has won numerous awards.