Dolores Tjeada Saavedra, the Councillor for Work at Marinaleda Town Council, gives a simple and detailed account of how a grassroots social movement has managed to socialize the means of production, housing, health, education and leisure in this small town in Southern Spain. Dolores explains the many benefits of having an active trade union, with the political power of the town counciland the productive force of cooperatives in the hands of the people. Marinaleda has a population of 3000, and an unemployment rate of 0%. Anybody who wants to self-build in the town is only charged 15 euros per month, and working families only pay 12 euros a month for childcare including meals, to name just two of a long list of social benefits. A true oasis in a country dominated byunbridled capitalism and the shabbiest and most retrograde government in Spain’s short history of democracy, which has left the country with an unemployment rate of 27% – 50% in the case of youth unemployment – and three million people living in poverty.

2 Mostra de Vídeo Independent de Barcelona 1994.

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 ...