A girl goes to bed at night listening to a lullaby of gunfire. A woman weeps on the sidewalk after yet another drive-by shooting. A little boy on a skateboard wishes he had a place to go to escape the drugs and gangs that are everyday parts of life growing up in East Palo Alto.

"That's the time we live in," says Betsy Cordoba, who works with preteens at the East Palo Alto Boys & Girls Club. "It's a cold world."

They all long for a safe haven in the haunting documentary "Where We Are Safe." It's one of the hard-hitting short films produced by youths all over the globe as part of Cinequest's new Picture the Possibilities project.

Several of the films, including the East Palo Alto piece, will be screened Sunday at San Jose's California Theatre as part of the 22nd annual Cinequest Film Festival. All of them will be available at www.cinequest.org starting Friday.

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