A digital docu-drama using real quake volunteers and quake survivors as actors has begun shooting in quake-hit southwest China's Sichuan Province and will be screened in early September.

The film, called After the Wind and Rain, reveals how volunteers help schoolchildren to restore normality to their lives after the earthquake. "Wind and rain" is often used as a metaphor for disaster in Chinese.

"It is likely to be broadcasted on the CCTV's (China Central Television) Movie Channel within two months," producer of the film Wang Zheng said.

The film is based on true stories of Lu Xing and her fellow volunteers, and is now being shot in Mianyang, one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan. Lu was a student from Beijing Film Academy, who became a volunteer music teacher at "tent schools" after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12.

Lu's ten days of volunteer teaching yielded many fascinating stories which she later turned into a script of some 30,000 Chinese characters.

The documentary, co-produced by Changchun Film Studio, one of China's best film studios, and Sichuan Boyuan Culture & Media Co., Ltd, only has two professional adult actors. The 30 "tent school" students in the film were all played by real middle-school students in makeshift camps in Mianyang.

Su Li, the actress who stars as the music teacher in the docu-drama, is a member of the August 1st Film Studio of the People's Liberation Army. She made her face known through a well-remembered TV series, A Woman across the River of Men.

"This is a very romantic character," said Su, pleased that she could "act as a volunteer". She said she worked for the film for free. "This made me a real 'volunteer actress' in the quake-hit area," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2008)