That lifetime again and things weren't so good. In 2002 she was hurt in a serious car accident that made walking difficult, and the following year her father died. In 2004 she got a job working for a big newspaper in Melbourne and on her first day on the job the Boxing Day tsunami hit, killing more than 200,000 people across Asia.

''I was depressed,'' she says candidly.

''I was surrounded by bad news, all day, every day, and I became curious, on a few different levels, about what it would be like to be a kid today, to be growing up in these times.''

She decided to travel but ''didn't want to lie on a beach somewhere'', and so decided to make a film taking in every country she visited. She wanted a topic that was joyful, optimistic, energetic and real. Something that would restore her and make her happy.

''I thought back to my favourite age in life and why I loved it so much, when the world feels big in a good way and at our feet. For me, that was when I was 11.

''With so much more information available at their fingertips than when I was young, I wondered 'Are they still happy and excited about inheriting this crazy world? Are they having as much fun as I did when I was 11?' ''

Bailey spent the next seven years travelling the world, visiting 15 countries, from Thailand to Sweden, Morocco and India, interviewing 25 children, aged 11, to hear their stories.

The result is a charming film, I Am Eleven, that has touched audiences wherever it has screened.

''I wanted to make something positive that would make me happy making it and make other people happy when they watched it,'' Bailey says.

''As a filmmaker, you hope that you will connect with people and it has made me extremely happy to see people enjoy the film, to come out laughing and crying, to take something from the film.''

You can't help but fall in love with the children. Friends Ginisha, Vandana, Remya and Sree Kutty, who live in an orphanage in India; Billy from London, ''a unique and complicated individual who has charmed audiences''; Remi, an earnest boy from France who dreams of a world without borders; and spirited Siham, from a remote mountain village in Morocco.

''Eleven is a time where you're full of ideas and personality and opinions but you haven't gone through those teenage years but you're not a little kid any more,'' Bailey says.

''Eleven-year-olds are curious, they have a sense of clarity, they don't worry if they sound cool or if it's the right answer or not.

''I found with all the kids I met, they were just happy to have a platform to share their stories, even if it was just day-to-day things that were going on.''

Bailey says she found a wonderful sense of optimism among the children.

''If there's one thing I thought they all had in common, I'd think about it wherever I was sleeping that night, I would think to myself these children are all happy with a wonderful sense of courage and optimism.

''They have this sense of self-belief, and truly believe anything is possible.''

For a generation that has grown up in the shadow of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the disaster that happened 11 years ago next month, Bailey is buoyed by the children's way of thinking.

It may depend upon the culture and their circumstance but all the children manage to find the joy in their lives. Siham is hassled by her fellow villagers to tell Bailey they have no electricity and how poor they are, all the while having this look on her face that tells she'd rather be talking about something else. Jack, who lives in Thailand says he likes playing with computers and riding elephants, ''that sort of stuff''. Oliver from New York is happy to be the Christmas tree that year because ''we're strapped financially''.

Does she think these children are living different lives to the one she did when she was 11?

''I've thought about that - are kids growing up too fast these days?'' she says.

''In some ways it depended on where the kids were, but they were all still able to be kids and be playful.

''I was quite interested to see how technology affected them all. When I was a kid we had a set of encyclopaedias, the six o'clock news, a teacher and my family but other than that I couldn't work out what was going on in the world, I couldn't read up online.

''Today, if kids want to read about what's happening anywhere they can - does that depress them? Sadden them?

''But for the kids who were in a position to have access, I didn't feel as though they were burdened by it and that made me happy.''

Bailey, who financed the film independently, and shot it with the help of her partner, Henrik Nordstrom, and composer Nick Huggins, caught up with some of the children years after she interviewed them.

''The film's nearly seven years in the making now, it's been a big part of my life and their lives, too.

''I caught up with Jack not long ago and he said he's extremely glad that that time in his life has been captured forever. He hopes it will help him keep this perspective on life, to remember that optimism and clarity and confidence. When you become a teenager, it all gets a bit complicated for a while.

''My mum says she loves the film, for many reasons obviously, but because it's a reminder that your inner 11-year-old is still in there somewhere and we should occasionally connect with that person.''

■ I Am Eleven opens at Dendy Cinemas, Canberra, today.