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The Santa Fe Film Festival prides itself on its global reach as well as its recognition of local filmmakers.

Next week in the City Different you can run into famed Hungarian cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, who, among numerous memorable films, shot "Easy Rider" in 1969 with Peter Fonda, a Santa Fe regular. And you can hobnob with 15-year-old local filmmaker Jordan McKittrick, who will present his debut film about survivors of the attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Jordan, a sophomore at ATC charter school in Santa Fe, made the 23-minute "Help, If I May Ask" about two A-bomb survivors who visited Los Alamos on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Jordan, with the help of his mom, Rosemary, shot the film last year with a borrowed Panasonic digital camera as part of his studies at Santa Fe Community College. He followed Masako Hashida, who was 15 in 1945 and working about a mile from the blast in Nagasaki, and Ueda Koji, a 3-year-old in Hiroshima at the time of that blast, as they visited Los Alamos in 2005.

His documentary mixes archival footage (Los Alamos was surprisingly generous, he said) with images from the Japanese delegation's healing visit. He sees his film as a call to action, a push for peace.

"I'm trying to present an emotional, rather than intellectual, point of view on the subject," he said. ". . . I'm hoping people will see it and feel it in their hearts and not just in their heads, and voice their opinions."

Jordan said his subjects, who speak through translators, were eager to participate in his project.

"They weren't apprehensive or angry about it (the bombing) at all," he said. "They feel it's something they should put out there so no one else should have to experience this.

"They poured their hearts out at the Aug. 6 ceremony. They were happy to cooperate with whatever supported the cause."

Jordan splits his time between ATC charter school and classes at Santa Fe Community College, one of the beneficiaries of the state Film Office's push for technical training in cinema.

Jon Bowman, director of the film festival, said advances in technology have brought a strong surge in moviemaking, especially in New Mexico and even among teens.

"The most amazing thing to watch over the past few years of the festival is how many people are making filmmaking a way of expressing themselves and how many young people are doing that," he said.

"Help, If I May Ask" will be shown with the documentary "Dr. Teller's Very Large Bomb" at 1:15 p.m. Thursday and 2:15 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., Santa Fe.