Contested Ground

Contested Ground will be a feature-length documentary chronicling the 2026-2027 academic year at Bronx International High School. Called a ‘miracle factory’ within New York’s Department of Education, Bronx International’s student body of 600 students is made up entirely of teenagers who have arrived in America in the last five years.

Many are undocumented and traveled to New York City unaccompanied. For these students, the school is a sanctuary in a city where every knock on the door represents a potential threat.

In the last year, the federal government’s unprecedented spending and militarization of immigration enforcement have had a terrifying effect on immigrant communities across America. At Bronx International, families have been torn apart after parents and guardians have been disappeared and deported. Some families have gone underground, fearful to let their kids walk to school every morning. Suddenly, the "American Dream" is no longer an aspiration, it is contested ground.

And yet, for the students and staff (many of whom are Bronx International graduates themselves), the mood is not fear but a defiant optimism and belief that this school is a ticket to a better future.

This is a story for our times, when our national discourse is dominated by these two questions:

Who should be an American, and what does it mean to be an American?