Varanasi, India, 6am. 2nd week of the shoot. The heat is already unbearable. Among the alleyways of this sacred city, someone invites me to carry out an interview. I don't understand what he is saying, but I follow him.

"Planet of the Arabs" is an experimental short illustrating Hollywood's relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims by making use of TV and film clips to create a "preview" for the ultimate Hollywood movie.

After the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, more than 5,000 people, mainly non-U.S. nationals of South Asian or Middle Eastern origin, were taken into custody by the U.S. Justice Department and held indefinitely on grounds of national security. Muslim immigrants were subject to arbitrary arrest, secret detention, solitary confinement, and deportation. Many were denied access to legal representation and communication with their families.

In the summer of 2004, citizens of Barcelona carried out an aquatic action against the hypocrisies and corruption involved in the concept and implementation of the Forum of Cultures. This documentary tells of their mission to reach the Forum in "pateras" (the small boats used by illegal immigrants to cross the Gibraltar Strait).

The upgrading of the final stretch of Diagonal avenue in Barcelona's Poble Nou area, for the launch of the "Forum" zone, will lead to the physical disappearance of entire blocks of housing and a way of life. An interview with a group of residents affected by a PERI (special renovation plan) that affects a block of ground floor houses in Poble Nou. They talk about the real estate agency's bad management and the lack of interest shown by the City Council in their excitement over the opening of the Universal Forum of Cultures.

The 36th parallel is an imaginary line on a map and also the real site of clandestine emigration across the Gibraltar Strait.

A glimpse into the life of Barcelona's Pakistanis. They talk to us about their work, the journey that brought them to Barcelona and their families, among other things. We visit some of the places where they tend to congregate: the Rambla del Raval, telephone centers, Barceloneta beach and the three Chimneys.

Flexible work, an unpredictable and precarious life, infowork, expropriation of communal space for use by the transnational companies that rule the empire... the precarious working conditions in which millions of people find themselves within the global society that is being constructed.

Tues March 25, 5:30pm. It started with an ungodly racket. Half air-raid siren and half screeching feedback, the noise pierced all ears within a half-mile radius. Diners in a restaurant on 15th Avenue wondered if Seattle was under attack. Other Capitol Hillers optimistically attributed the racket to a garden-variety fire or freeway pileup, albeit one serious enough to require the screaming attention of every ambulance and fire truck in town Meanwhile, those in The Stranger's offices gazed down onto the source of all the trouble--eight or 10 guys in sharp suits and hats, paired off on corners, where they alternately ran jumper cables to screaming siren-boxes and bleated through distorted megaphones.