By Iain Blair

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When you think of a first-time filmmaker, you probably do not think of Charles Ferguson.

The term conjures images of kid directors in scruffy jeans scraping for pennies to fund a movie. Ferguson is a balding 52-year-old who favors sport coats, has a Ph.D. in political science, consulted for the White House and spent $2 million of his own money to make Iraq war film "No End in Sight."

His documentary, which opens in major U.S. cities on Friday, has earned strong reviews since debuting at January's Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize.

"No End in Sight" looks at U.S. policy decisions that led to what many believe is a civil war in Iraq. Separating it from many other Iraq documentaries are interviews with key U.S. officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who detail problems inside the Bush administration.

"I am utterly astonished that, four years after the war, mine is the only film that covers the policy question of, 'What happened here?,' Ferguson said.

"In the debate about what to do now in Iraq -- as with any complex issue -- understanding what the real situation is and how we got there is vital to understanding any solution."

Since 2004, when filmmaker Michael Moore unleashed his withering attack on Bush and the Iraq war in "Fahrenheit 911," several war documentaries have made their way into theaters.

"The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends," for instance, told of military men and women suffering post-traumatic stress. "Iraq in Fragments," which was nominated for a 2006 Oscar, was a view of Iraqi life inside the war-torn country.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

It was not by accident that Ferguson, who said he's been a movie fan for more than 20 years, made his first film a documentary about such a complicated issue as the Iraq war.

He earned his doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a consultant to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Defense, among several other politically oriented jobs.

"People in the know were more willing to talk to me," he said. The key exception was Department of Defense, which "refused to give me any kind of cooperation whatsoever," Ferguson said.

Audiences gain insight from Armitage; Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who was in charge of Baghdad after the invasion; Faisal Al-Istrabadi, Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations; and Iraqi citizens like his translator who was a doctor before the war.

Oscar-nominated documentarian Alex Gibney, who directed 2005 film "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," signed on to executive-produce "No End in Sight."

Finally Ferguson, who made a fortune selling his technology company to Microsoft Corp. in 1996, spent his own money to make the movie -- a decision he said gave him several advantages.

"Financing this kind of film would have taken a lot of time and energy and delayed me," he said. "I also didn't want any risk whatsoever of compromising my editorial independence."

While many first-time filmmakers see their initial work collect dust on their personal DVD shelves, Ferguson's is gaining a following among documentary lovers and critics.

"Ferguson delivers the calm, meticulous survey of U.S. policy that legions of critics of Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' have been waiting for," wrote reviewer Robert Koehler in show business newspaper "Variety."