Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evenings at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but at 5 p.m. the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets underway.

An advanced screening of the films is arranged with a young Island cineaste, plucked from the target audience. In a world with few certainties, the kid critic is the critic to trust. Unfettered by economics, societal pressure, perhaps even good taste, the kid critics have no agenda. They have no filters nor is there any chance of hyperbolic windblowing designed to get everyone to see the movie. In fact, fewer people showing up might mean more popcorn for these young reviewers.

This week’s program is titled Only You, and one of the filmmakers, Yvette Edery, who made Jillion Dillon, will attend and talk to the children if they have any comments. These reviews come from Charlotte and Eliot Cape, who say, “This week’s films were fun to watch and reminded us that it is important to be proud of yourself, speak your mind, and do what you think is right. There was also lots of imagination including even how to make a flying airplane from junk around the house.”

The Emperor’s New Clothes (Dir. Michael Sporn / U.S.A. / 1991 / 26 min.)

This is a cartoon about a king who wanted some new clothes. He was not a good king because he taxed his people too heavily and to pay for all his clothes (and a war) and did not care for much else. The person who made clothes gave him a suit made out of air. It was a trick; the king was told that anyone who could not see the clothes was silly. So no one dared tell the emperor he had no clothes when he marched in the parade. Nobody that is, except the children. It started with one, but then everybody agreed that he wasn’t in fact wearing any clothes. When the emperor realized he was naked and a trick had been played on him, he began to realize that he should take much better care of his people and be a good king. We enjoyed watching this movie. While it was a little long, we liked the characters, drawings and the music. We give it five stars.

Jillion Dillon (Dir. Yvette Edery / U.S.A. / 2009 / 4 min.)

This movie is a puppet movie told as a song. Jillion’s daddy is a hippopotamus and mommy is a platypus. Everyone at school made fun of her for being a hippo-platypus. One day, the kids at school made a boat out of clay and straw. They thought it would be a great idea to try it out. Just as the boat was in the middle of the water, it fell apart leaving the kids stranded and needing help. The hippo-platypus was just the person for the job because she was big and strong (thanks to her dad) and a very good swimmer (thanks to her mom). The whole town celebrated Jillion. The moral of the story was “love who you are.” Although we liked the movie, we wish the characters had talked more. Some of the artwork was really beautiful. It made us sad that the kids were making fun of Jillion and her parents, and when the boat was broken. The ending was good. We give this film four stars.

Terranaughts (Dir. Adrienne Drozdowski / Canada / 2010/ 5 min.)

This was a silent film with very interesting drawings. There was a tall house, lots of objects and junk around, but somehow there were enough things to build a plane. The plane took us high above the house, into the sky, the moon and stars. The movie was sort of like a dream. We give this film three stars as we would have liked more colors and talking but watching them make a plane made us happy.

Chicken Little (Dir. Soup2Nuts / U.S.A. / 2010 / 9 min.)

This is a cartoon with some funny drawings of different birds and a fox. It started with a chicken that wasn’t very clever who thought the sky was falling. The silly chicken told other silly birds the same thing. And without a plan they kept wondering around making everybody scared until they met a fox. This fox had a plan. He said it would be safest if they take shelter in a dark, warm tunnel, but it was a trick. The birds with no plan of their own agreed with the fox and the fox made the silly birds walk right into his mouth! The fox frightened me but I must have liked it because we watched the film again. We gave this movie four stars.

The Little Boy and the Beast (Dir. Johannes Weiland and Heid Schoetter / Germany / 2009 / 7 min.)

This was a cartoon with subtitles about how a boy and his mother lived alone together. The boy saw his mother as a big, mostly friendly beast. He has to help her a lot. However, he is allowed to eat as much candy as he wants. As time passes, she gets lots of help from the little boy and other friends and it makes her pretty again, just the way she used to be. This makes him happy except that he’s not allowed to eat as much candy. This was a happy and funny movie. We liked the imagination and that the boy likes to play with his train, just like Eliot. We give this movie four stars.