Such a frustrating disappointment

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

"Tanza" - About child soldiers but fails to touch on any of the issues surrounding the use of child soldiers in African wars. This is the worst of the short films. The acting is also very poor. The sentimentality based on an educated child soldier with a conscience doesn't seem to match reality at all.(With regards to the previous comment about the use of English, the children speak Pidgin English which is a recognised world dialect and is realistically used by people from different tribes to communicate)."Blue Gypsy" - A very lively and well produced short film. The depiction of the family of robbers is excellent. Most of the humour was very good, although a few jokes wore a bit thin (the conductor falling off the stage for example). The scene in the railway station is particularly good."Jesus Children of America" - One of the best of the short films depicting a child who may or may not have inherited AIDS from her parents. A very moving short film which deals with some of the issues in a sensitive manner."Bilu e João" - Probably the best of the short films. This deals with the lives of two children who work collecting garbage on the streets of Sao Paulo. The film's use of glossy imagery of the children contrasts against the harsh conditions they are living in. The use of well-off looking children as the street urchins helps show the disparity between rich and poor."Jonathan" - A rather confusing short film which has some nice scenes shot in English woods. The film deals with the games that children play. While most children play war games there are many children in the world that actually have to live through war."Ciro" - Set in Naples, two street urchins steal a rich man's watch and go on to sell it. The only help the children get is from the fence while the rest of society is arguing about who is to blame. Well shot film with some beautiful scenes."Song Song and Little Cat" - A horrible film using overblown 50's cinema techniques to deal with a cheesy plot. (Possibly and insult to 50's cinema).Overall the compilation of short films is well put together and well worth seeing.

The project "All the Invisible Children" has the intention to disclose through seven short stories, the terrible situation, with the lost of innocence and lack of perspective of abused children in some countries in the Twentieth-First Century through the eyes of seven directors.1) "Tanza": Mehdi Chafer shows a boy called Tanza in an undefined country in Africa fighting in a civil war with machine gun and explosives, and dreaming on having his home and going to school. This theme could be very powerful, since there are many civil wars in Africa and use of children as soldiers, but this short never works and is completely boring. My vote is three.2) "Uros": Emir Kusturica shows a gypsy boy called Uros in his last day in a juvenile prison in Serbia-Montenegro without any other perspective but returning to the place. The black-humor never works and the story is pointless and pretentious. My vote is four.3) "Jesus Children of America": Spike Lee shows a HIV positive girl called Blanca, daughter of junkies' parents with Aids and the cruelty of her schoolmates in school in the best episode of this film. My vote is nine.4) "Bilu and João": Kátia Lund gives an optimistic approach of two homeless children that fight to survive working on the streets, collecting beer and soda tins and paper to sell in a junkyard, and transporting shops in street fairs. Kátia Lund lost the chance to disclose the terrible situation of street children in Brazil, and how our society is indifferent to such a social problem. My vote is five.5) "Jonathan": Jordan and Ridley Scott show a photographer correspondent of war in pain for his past experiences. This tale is simply awful, empty and shows the absolutely alienated vision of the childhood problem of these directors, actually the worst story. My vote is two.6) "Ciro": Stefano Veneruso shows a young boy in Naples that pickpockets to survive. This short is interesting and has a good conclusion. My vote is seven.7) "Song Son and Little Cat": John Woo shows a beautiful, but shallow tale of fantasy, with a homeless orphan and a spoiled wealthy girl. The short is beautiful and probably the most elaborated one, but does not reach the objective of this collection of films. My vote is six.Therefore, in spite of the good intention of the producers of "All the Invisible Children", the result is irregular, flawed and only reasonable. My (global) vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Crianças Invisíveis" ("Invisible Children")

I have seen it today. And i saw it in Italian though i understand this language only a little.it was shocking, amazing, sad, interesting, boring. First i wanted to turn off, then - i was interested, then i was shocked and in the end i cried (for long hour). It's bunch of films which shows different living of children. these aren't films which shows only happy ending, happy heroes which has almost everything. here in "all the invisible children" you can see the real life, without embellishment, a reality which usually isn't shown on TV or movies. Reality which we are blind to. I suggest to see this film, because it's just so beauty!!! It's educate humanity.and in my opinion a lot of people should see this film to understand that all we are happy that we have almost everything and still we're crying that we don't have enough money...

I was lucky enough to see the film yesterday and I have to say I loved it!!! Only two out of the seven short films were a bit on the bad side, but overall a very good film. I'll try to keep my comments spoiler-free for those who haven't seen it, but there is one on the final comment (there's a note right before it).TANZA This is the first short film presented and I have to say one of the weakest. I would have preferred to see the characters speaking in their native tongue and have subtitles there rather than hearing them attempt to speak English, it made the whole thing a bit unnatural, and the end result is not really satisfying in my opinion. BLUE GYPSY This was one of my favorites. The lovely balance of humor and dramatic undertones eventually collide in an impressive and gripping result. Loved it!!! Jesus CHILDREN OF America A great one as well! The little kid actress is wonderful and there is some pretty heavy stuff on this one. The ending scene was not very good though, but everything else in this short makes-up for this little "mistake". JOAO AND BILU This was another one of my favorites. There's nothing too dramatic on this one but therein lies it's beauty, in it's simplicity. CIRO Another great short. I loved the whole shadow play and in the end it really goes to the core of what being a child is. JONATHAN This one was definitely the worst. Pretentious and completely uninteresting, it doesn't even come close to the quality of all the other ones. SONG SONG AND LITTLE CAT (*contains SPOILERS*) This one was awesome and it could have been the best one of them all if John Woo hadn't exploded its resources. It starts off very well and it has many heart-wrenching moments but we really could have done without the explicit shot of the "grandfather" holding the old pencil, or any of the ending shots for that matter. I would have ended it on the girl looking at the kids in school, it would have been more powerful to end it like that rather than force it to be a happy ending, I mean come on! The grandpa saying "goodbye" through the window, we did not need that! Anyways, in spite of all that I really loved it. And OMG it ends and the BEAUTIFUL, Oscar-deserving song "Teach Me Again" by Elisa (featuring Tina Turner) comes up!!!!!! Can't think of a better way to end a movie :)