This article deals with documentaries on the ‘War on Terror’ after 9/11 2001 as it is reflected in documentary films and television programmes that take an alternative point of view by going behind the headlines of mainstream news reportage on war and terror and into the everyday lives of people and nations affected by the war. The films and programmes analyzed deal with gender issues, family life and social and cultural dimensions of life in Iraq and Afghanistan. The article positions the discussion in theories of everyday life and social cognition, arguing that representations of everyday life and different forms of modes of living in these types of observational documentaries create a global, intercultural dialogue that contributes to a ‘glocalization’ of individual, group and universal aspects of the images dominating the global media culture