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Richard Curtis stars in the real Notting Hill
Nick Curtis and Danny Brierley27.02.09
EIGHT teenagers have made a movie about the "real" Notting Hill starring director Richard Curtis.
The filmmaker helped the group of pupils, all from local estates, to create a gritty alternative to the blockbuster that made him famous.
Instead of Hugh Grant falling in love with Julia Roberts amid a cast of all-white professionals, Grove Roots tells the story of race riots and immigration. It starts with Jamaican immigrants greeted with signs declaring "No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs" and ends with the arrival of rich "Notting Hillbillies".
The world premiere is tonight at the Electric cinema in Portobello Road, before the film opens in 20 cinemas across London.
In it, Curtis admits he was "asking for trouble" by naming his all-white, middle-class romantic comedy after the multi-ethnic west London district but the eight pupils, all aged between 14 and 18, still wanted him to help with the documentary as he made the area famous. He is interviewed alongside long-term residents including George Oban, founder of reggae group Aswad.
"You think you're in the richest part of town," Curtis says, "then you go down one street and you are in a completely different area."
Rae Evelyn, 17, one of the filmmakers and a pupil at the St Charles Sixth Form College in Ladbroke Grove, said Curtis had inspired her to follow a career in film. "The experience has affected my life in a positive way," she said. "It has given me an incredible insight into the film-making world."
Gabrielle Tierney, community officer at charity Octavia Foundation, which aims to improve the quality of life for local residents and ran the film project, said: "They [the teenagers] were really insistent that the film Notting Hill was one of the turning points in the history of west London.
"They wanted Curtis to be involved so we requested an interview and he very kindly said yes. He talked to us at length and gave the group fantastic advice on how to make it in film." Curtis is expected to attend tonight's premiere.
