PARIS: The Cannes Film Festival is hardly a place where you would imagine political consciousness to be high on the list. But this year, the 12-day festival has a decidedly political slant with an impressive lineup of documentaries, several of which were inspired by the Bush administration and its war in Iraq.

"One thing US President George W. Bush has done is to get people interested and active in politics again," Joseph Mealey told the film industry magazine Variety. "Bush's Brain" Mealey's documentary about Karl Rove, the White House political strategist, is being presented in market screenings at Cannes.

Michael Moore, France's favorite American, is back two years after showing "Bowling for Columbine" with "Fahrenheit 9/11." At its In Competition screening Monday, Moore's film, an indictment of the Bush administration's past four years in power, produced a 15-minute standing ovation and speculation that the film might win the coveted Palme d'Or prize.

While "Fahrenheit 9/11" has been widely covered by the media, a less-publicized documentary, shown Tuesday in Cannes to a packed theater, has the potential of becoming a political thunderbolt when released in US cinemas this August.

Noted television and film producer Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" is an in-depth look at the distortion of intelligence and the "spin and hype" created by the White House to justify going to war in Iraq. The film is a series of fast-paced interviews with A-list US government insiders, from CIA political analysts to Pentagon officials and weapons inspectors (Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials refused to be interviewed).

"Uncovered" poses all the questions the mainstream media hasn't addressed in a no-nonsense style, kicking off with categorical statements by CIA officials that the Bush administration had made up its mind to go to war on Sept. 11, 2001.

Originally 50-minutes long, the film was sponsored by activist movements such as MoveOn and the Center for American Progress, which promoted it via the internet. The resulting public response was considerable. Grassroots screenings were subsequently held in homes, schools, clubs and churches, culminating in an event last December during which 2,600 homes across the US screened the film on the same evening.

French production company executive Philippe Lenglet took notice and agreed not only to distribute the film, but also to help Greenwald make "Uncovered" into a full-length film that could be presented at festivals and distributed in cinemas. In cooperation with Lenglet's Los Angeles-based Cinema Libre Studio, "Uncovered" was prolonged to 87 minutes. Greenwald added interviews with David Kay, the Bush administration's weapons inspector who came to the conclusion that there were no WMDs, and Richard Clarke, Bush's top anti-terrorism adviser.

Former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and one of the featured experts in "Uncovered," traveled with Lenglet to Paris and Cannes for the screening.

Wilson, a career foreign service officer and former charge d'affaires in Baghdad, revealed to the New York Times in July 2003 that the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein sought to acquire uranium in Niger were false. Subsequently, an alleged senior White House official leaked the name of Wilson's wife, a CIA operative working on WMDs, to the press.

Wilson discussed censorship within the US media, the tremendous cost of "wars of liberation" and his conviction that the United States cannot improve the situation in Iraq alone.

"This administration has no plan of action," said Wilson, referring to the "incredibly precarious situation" in Iraq.

"There has to be a big international presence in Iraq, including neighboring countries. In order to change the equation in Iraq you have to change the atmosphere. More troops should be sent in to create a climate of stability. Our military is good, but we're not good at training people like the police and other civil servants. We created this horror, we should leave something less chaotic."

Wilson, whose book "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity" was recently published in the US, is at the forefront of the swelling ranks of government officials who have decided to speak out against the Bush administration. A Kerry supporter, he sees himself as playing "point position" for the Democratic presidential candidate along with others such as General Wesley Clark and Senator Joseph Biden.

Wilson participated in a debate in Cannes and will join other former government officials, such as CIA veteran Ray McGovern, who "star" in "Uncovered" at screenings in the future.

Robert Greenwald rushed to finish "Uncovered" so that it could be presented at Cannes. He is now busy putting finishing touches to his next documentary, "Unconstitutional," a study of civil liberties after Sept. 11, 2001. Meanwhile, Philippe Lenglet's Cinema Libre Studio will distribute "Uncovered" in the US in August.