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From top to bottom, scenes from “War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids,” “

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From top to bottom, scenes from “War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids,” “

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From top to bottom, scenes from “War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids,” “

“War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids” Directed by Jennifer Glos About 150 children ages 4 to 18 from all parts of Southern California were questioned on the subject of war for this film. Kids from anti-war families as well as kids who attend military school or have parents fighting in Iraq were interviewed making this film the most politically balanced film in the Showtime project. Although there are lighter parts of the documentary where kids are just being kids, Glos discovered that many kids were greatly concerned and had extremely strong opinions concerning war. In the end, what Glos discovered was dismaying.

“Winning the Peace” Directed by Eli Kaufman This extremely professional-looking film about an Iraqi American Marine who discovers the costs of war was originally inspired by a photograph in the New York Times, that filmmaker Eli Kaufman saw in June 2003, of two American Marines embracing after just having witnessed the deaths of some Iraqi children who had stepped on an unexploded land mine. “The image of two U.S. Marines, big guys, just totally broken up by what they had witnessed. ... That image of war deserved a back story,” Kaufman said. In addition to some impressive dramatic performances by the actors and some beautiful cinematography, the film never becomes overbearing or preachy even though it’s a film about war. Rather it’s simply a touching story about the consequences of war.

“Outside” Directed by Jenn Kao In this science fiction piece, which filmmaker Jenn Kao calls a “metaphor for war and reconciliation,” Debbie lives in solitary confinement in a shelter that is supposed to protect her, but is more like a prison. She and her friends live in a post-apocalyptic world where the only way they can communicate with one another is through radio. They spend most of their days dreaming of the beach or grass, places outside and far away from their grim and inhumane existence where they subsist off a few crackers and water. When Debbie encounters foreigners outside her door, she is told to not look at them and that as long as she stays in her cell, she’ll stay safe. But the loneliness Debbie experiences causes her to develop a relationship with an outsider whom she doesn’t understand at first. There’s a repeated image of Debbie rubbing crude oil in her hands, which seems like a reference to the idea of President Bush going to war for oil, but Kao insists that the oil is simply a drug that Debbie and others who are confined use to “help them simulate what it would be like to be outside.”

“Attention” Directed by Brad Sample Filmed as a debate between two historians on either side of the Iraq war debate, Sample explores more than the verbal political debate that has recently divided our nation. Interspersed into the debate are images of war, political rhetoric, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the war-ridden country of Iraq. Most poignantly, after the bombardment of images of war and conflict, Sample asks the audience to vote on which policy they agree with more – pro-war or anti-war – leaving neither side looking more favorable than the other.

“The Invisible Man” Directed by Angela Mrema Satire turned tragedy, this fictional film questions both the journalistic merits and human impact of the now-familiar newscroller lines that run across the bottoms of most news channels on TV. A devoted newscroller writer, once realizing that nobody really reads or cares much about what he writes, takes a few liberties with his job. After getting away with it once, he becomes so disenchanted with his job that he will never be able to look at it the same way again. Similarly, if that’s really how information gets onto television, audiences may not be able to watch newscrallers again.

“Elegy” Directed by Kristina Malsberger For filmmaker Kristina Malsberger, this “hypothetical documentary” about the discovery, post-nuclear fallout, by aliens of a space capsule that shows home footage of human families, was extremely personal. The 20 hours of footage Malsberger collected and compressed for the film short were loaned to her by friends and family members. In fact, Malsberger herself appears in the film as a baby in a bathtub with her mother, and a little girl running with a kite across a field. Malsberger exclusively used home videos that were on Super 8 film, which was popular in the’50s, ’60s and ’70s for home movie-making.

“Dominance and Terror: A Discussion with Noam Chomsky” Directed by Roberto Oregel Chomsky, the long-standing American linguist and one of the most famous political dissidents, is captured by Oregel discussing such issues as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and solutions for the conflict in Iraq. This introspective look at his thoughts and opinions goes deeper than your average documentary, helping to illustrate Chomsky’s feelings with artistic exuberance.

-Compiled by Angela Lu, Justin Scott and Jake Tracer