Amid the Olympic torch relay, a group of amateur film makers will release a movie on April 27 to greet the Games.

The film, named after the Beijing Olympic Mascot known as "Fuwa", will debut in a low-income housing community in Beijing.

The 65-minute movie about five children and their adventures with "Fuwa" was totally funded, directed and shot by people living in the Tiantongyuan Community in northwest Beijing's Changping District.

Tiantongyuan, one of the largest affordable housing projects in the capital, has more than 300,000 residents.

Jiang Yuan, the director, said that all 340 free tickets for the premiere, the only public screening, had been booked by Tantongyuan residents.

Jiang, who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, freelances in the film industry. The film team, all Tiantongyuan residents, began to make their movie early last year.

"We never imagined we would get such community support," he said.

Early last year, Jiang, who also runs the community website, held an online chat about how to mark the Olympics.

"Our first plan was to make some short digital videos about the lives of Tiantongyuan residents and upload them to our website," he said. But then he saw a posting about a girl who "encouraged her parents and friends to draw pictures of 'Fuwa'," he said. "I posted my first movie script about the girl on the community website."

"Hundreds of Tiantongyuan residents sent me more stories about 'Fuwa' and the Olympics," he said. Some of these tales made their way into the final script.

Casting for the movie was a little more complicated. "We planed to get local kids to act in the movie but some community residents complained this practice was unfair and not transparent," he said. In the end, all five actors and actresses, aged seven to nine, were chosen from among 674 candidates in an open casting call, he said.

The film had one thing in common with many Hollywood blockbusters: the cost rose along the way. The original budget was 20,000 yuan (2,857 U.S. dollars), but the final tally was more than 100,000 yuan, Jiang said.

"We are happy anyway, since it's not a commercial movie," he said.

"Fortunately, the community property managing office has promised to make 10,000 DVDs, so more Tantongyuan residents can see the movie," he said. These DVDs would be distributed after the premiere.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11,2008)