Persons of Interest

"Guaranteed to raise the righteous indignation of anyone with a favorable opinion of liberty, freedom or the Constitution."—Newsday Persons of Interest focuses on 12 of the over 5,000 Arab or Muslim immigrants taken into custody by U.S. authorities soon after September 11. The film consists of intimate conversations with the detainees, who are held indefinitely on grounds of national security, often on the flimsiest of pretexts. The Justice Department has sought to keep most of the cases invisible, refusing to disclose the names and total number of those detained.

Persons of Interest places a human face on those untold stories, making it "the most potent documentary" of this year's Human Rights Watch Film Festival, as Time Out noted. The film's interviews were shot at the end of Ramadan in 2002; an epilogue reveals the sobering turns the detainees' lives have since taken. (63 mins.)

support credits

Season support provided by the Rohauer Collection Foundation and the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation.

Contemporary films, international films, and visiting filmmakers presented with support from the Ohio Arts Council.