Documents from the dark side of the empire. Government and corporate promotional material from military, pharmaceutical, digital and other mega industries...promoting them and their unspoken interests. A worrying promotional video of damage post-September 11, directed by Klaus Obermayer, in which revenge is encouraged by pushing the buttons of entrenched psycho-social cliches: virility, "they say Americans boys aren't hard enough", "24 hours a day, 7 days a week".

The documentary "Between the book and the sword" portrays the Sikh community in the city of Barcelona and its surroundings, showing the contrast between the bustle and volatility of the city and a solid community with permanent social and cultural structures. Through the stories of some of its members, their flavors and the striking colors that fill the screen, we capture the intimacy of private space, the space of worship and prayer, and finally the occupation of public space. This film does not intend to show the totality of the Sikh community, but rather fragments of lived scenes that transport the viewer into an ethnographic experience. This video is part of the Educational Agreement of collaboration between the OVNI Archives and the Department of Anthropology of the University of Barcelona -  UAB , for the curricular external practices of the students, of the academic year 2022-2023.

Working over the years in small and medium length pieces, one realizes that, somehow and surpassing all foresight, they work as pieces of an unexpected mosaic, pieces that are interspersed giving rise to senses and paths that are completed. Although their unexpected origin is random, their combinatory is guided by the lines of tension and fracture of each of these videos. Looking for the doors that communicate them with each other... the idea of the video as reverie and contemplation... With fragments of: Fez Ciudad Interior, Wahab, Istishara, Anoche dhikr, Al Barzaj, Satsanga, with the final possibility of El Amor es tu Destino ...  

A video essay by Alessandro Quaranta and Toni Cots, in collaboration with CRA’P – Creation Practices and Artistic Research. States of Passage, shows an ‘alterity’ of subjects and cultures, which by constituting a radical alternative to the dominant and homogeneous thought, both in terms of socio-cultural spheres and small communities, they challenge the spatial-temporal and anthropocentric convictions of control and knowledge of any visible and invisible phenomena. It is precisely in terms of the invisibility or visibility of the apparent, that which has prompted us to elaborate this essay with images, and the word as evocation. This video-essay is a testimony of this attempt: the subjects that appear are marginalised beings or entities, self-exiles, ascetics, primitives, etc., in and from the margins of ‘civilisation’. The material used consists partly of open source videos available on the net and re-edited, some available on the OVNI archive, and others created specifically for this project. Authors cited in the video essay States of Passage: Scott Barley, Philippe Descola, Federico Lanchares, Ciro Guerra, Xavi Hurtado, Gian Antonio Gilli, Toni Cots, Alessandro Quaranta, Pavel Lungin, Ben Rivers, Bruno Latour, Carlos Casas, Toni Serra *) Abu-Ali. This video essay is a non-profit research project for educational purposes.  

1 Mostra de Vídeo Independent de Barcelona 1993.

Europe Trap is a film depicting the true struggle of a refugee. A close-up of Zakereh, a 55-year-old mother trying to reunite with her son, who is trapped in Greece. Through her eyes we shall witness her struggle against herself and society; a struggle as hard as the previous one she faced during wartime in Afghanistan. Zakereh fled Afghanistan many years ago. She escaped from war but she found misery and hostility. First in Iran, as a widow, with one child and without any rights, and later on, by crossing without papers many borders until she arrived in Europe. Once in Europe, at Athens airport she lost her son Omid and arrived alone in Spain without knowing where she was. Now she is suffering from culture shock, trying to fit in in another world where she doesn’t belong and dealing every day with a strange reality, with all her sadness and pain. The intimate portrait of an Afghan woman, who first became a widow and then a refugee. A testimony of the incomprehension of a new world and the situation she has to deal with now – a war as hard as the previous one, in the Europe Trap. A documentary about exile, loneliness, and the ghosts of war.