After the September 11th terrorist attacks, more than 5,000 Arab or Muslim immigrants were swiftly taken into custody by the U.S. Justice Department and held indefinitely on the grounds of national security. Deemed "persons of interest," these detainees were subject to arbitrary arrest, secret detention, solitary confinement and deportation without any public acknowledgement of who they were or why they were being held. The topical, documentary film PERSONS OF INTEREST finally gives a voice to the men and women who became entangled in the U.S. government's anti-terrorism campaign. Filmed in a small, spare, whitewashed room, with a similarly direct and stripped-down filmmaking style, PERSONS OF INTEREST is composed of a series of personal and impassioned testimonies from twelve New York area detainees (some held for weeks, others for more than a year) and their family members. Speaking freely to the filmmakers, they relate stories of arrest and detention and families forever changed. Palestinian-American Nabil Ayesh tells of being arrested after identifying himself as Arabic to a police officer who stopped his car for an alleged traffic violation. He spent more than one year in detention and was ultimately deported. A second account comes from Syed Ali, a Pakistan-born American citizen with a Ph.D. in Criminal Law who lived in the U.S. for more than twenty years with his American wife. He was jailed for 105 days, when his partner turned him in to the FBI following a business dispute. A search of his home turned up his sonšs flight-simulator computer game and a receipt from the WTC dated a month prior to 9/11, and he was deemed a financier of the terrorist attacks. Forced to mortgage their home and sell his business to pay for legal defense, he was eventually cleared of all charges and now operates a limousine franchise. Amanda Serrano describes how her Algerian husband, Karim Tebbakh, was arrested at his workplace and the FBI aggressively searched their home. For three months she was unable to learn where Karim was being held and, when she was finally able to visit with him, he was virtually unrecognizable. After 18 months in detention, Amanda's husband was deported to Algeria and has been forbidden to re-enter the U.S.

 Starring: Alison Maclean, Tobias Perse, Lawrence Konner
 Genre: Documentary
 Release Date: September 3, 2004 (NY).
 Running Time : none.
 Production Company: First Run Features>