he world is a mess, but at least we have Sept. 21 to look forward to. Three years ago the United Nations designated the date as an annual International Day of World Peace, "to be observed as a day of global cease-fire and nonviolence," according to General Assembly resolution 55/282.

You hadn't noticed?

That's why Jeremy Gilley is making a sequel to his "Peace One Day," the documentary film that led the U.N. to establish the official day of peace, a day celebrated but not observed. Now Mr. Gilley, a British actor and filmmaker, wants his next documentary to take the process further, to induce a real cease-fire.

"I know that's an ideal thought, a lovely thought," said Mr. Gilley in an interview, about his plan to make a film that will cause nations and guerrilla groups to actually stop fighting for a day. He was in New York earlier this month trying to persuade people at the U.N. and at major corporations to back his new venture. "And I know it isn't easy for the people of this world to get above politics and above religion," he said. "I'm not na�_ve. But it's something that will and can occur."

Six years ago Mr. Gilley was a 29-year-old actor, the Royal Shakespeare Company on his r�_sum�_, but with a modest career mainly in television, and he was dabbling in producing documentaries. He was not satisfied and linked his personal quest for self-fulfillment to nothing less than world peace, intending to film every step of the process. His ambition, he admits, was more about filmmaking than peacemaking.

Gathering images of despair and hope cost �_1.4 million ($2.6 million), all donations. Mr. Gilley traveled to 30 countries, visiting children orphaned by war, politicians, diplomats and Nobel laureates, and almost always accompanied by a film crew using donated equipment. He interviewed (separately) the Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres, Kofi Annan and a roomful of Arab League ambassadors. He was at the U.N. to record the celebration of the first international day of peace on Sept. 11, 2001, at the moment the World Trade Center was attacked.

Mr. Gilley makes connections. He persuaded a British member of Parliament to write a letter of recommendation to British Airways executives, who agreed to fly Mr. Gilley wherever he needed to go - usually in a first-class seat. But mainly he has operated with a steerage mentality, installing an office in his mother's spare room, borrowing a friend's suit for important meetings, bunking with acquaintances abroad.

"Peace One Day" has been on the circuit since its premiere last summer at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It has a hefty schedule of bookings, in movie theaters and on television in the United Kingdom (on the BBC) and in many European countries, as well as Israel (where it is playing now), Brazil, India and Australia. G. P. Putnam's Sons is publishing a children's book based on the film this summer.

Mr. Gilley is a deft operator when it comes to enlisting people to his cause. His combination of old-fashioned charm (he says things like "goodness me") and self-promotional instinct is unusual in the entertainment business. But his manner and style are even less familiar in humanitarian, corporate and political circles.

"I thought he was a bit flaky, actually, but he was referred to me by someone I know very well," said Kieran Prendergast, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, who appears in Mr. Gilley's film and who has become a fan and one of a number of U.N. officials who opened doors for his first film, giving him the credibility and access he needed.

Mr. Prendergast is glad to help again. "The first film was a considerable success," he said. "It has definitely raised awareness of a global day of peace, which is a noble idea. If you start off with peace one day maybe there will be peace every day."

Robert Campbell, executive creative director in Britain of McCann-Erickson, the advertising firm, was similarly impressed, having met Mr. Gilley through an old friend. "Guys like Jeremy are often real space cadets but he's not," Mr. Campbell said. "He's so focused and so capable of putting together deals and getting stuff done. And he has a genuine spirit that's very, very rare in this world. A man who is so capable and savvy and so good. It's very odd."

McCann-Erickson wants to be involved in the new project, Mr. Campbell said. "If Jeremy got the United Nations to say yes and all those world leaders to say yes it would be quite interesting to get some corporations to say yes." Mr. Campbell is working with Mr. Gilley on how to accomplish that.

A British reviewer called Mr. Gilley "a sort of cross between Hugh Grant and Michael Moore," presumably referring to the filmmaker's ability to be adorable while dogged. "Peace One Day" records Mr. Gilley cutting his shoulder-length hair and putting on a borrowed suit and tie before meeting Kofi Annan. It also shows a Palestinian Authority official chastising him.

Mr. Gilley distinguishes himself from Mr. Moore, politely. "I don't shame, blame or ridicule anyone," he said, and then added: "What I've learned from people like Mr. Moore is, goodness me, you get these big distributors behind you and you can get your film out. I really respect his method of distribution and marketing."

The United States has pretty much resisted Mr. Gilley's charms. "Peace One Day" was turned down by the Sundance Film Festival, though it recently played at the more obscure Mountaintop Film Festival in Waitsfield, Vt., and has been accepted at the International Film Festival in Tiburon, Calif. Mr. Gilley has not yet found a distributor in this country.

Mr. Gilley says his entrepreneurial drive comes from his father, a businessman. He also traces his urge to make peace to his family. His parents divorced when he was 3 and began affairs with another divorced couple who lived in the same English town. Each couple had three children. "The level of negotiation that was involved, the process of keeping the peace, was quite intense," Mr. Gilley said.

When he was 12, he said, he was dyslexic and hating school, when his career began. He auditioned and won the lead in a show onstage in London's West End, "Bugsy Malone," a role that entailed keeping the peace between two other characters. Mr. Gilley sees a connection. "I know it was a play and I was acting," he said. "But I've always had this idea of trying to save the day."