by Erin McWhitrer

HAPPY Feet director George Miller maintains it isn't easy, but a troupe of teenagers from Sydney's western suburbs has proved him wrong, raising $500,000 to produce feature film Green Fire Envy.

Filmed over four weeks, the Sydney-based drama delves into death and the psychology of those who are left behind.

While the gritty tale might be shunned by some parents as too gruesome a storyline, the students, from as far afield as Canada, disagree.
Penrith Anglican College Year 7 student Kayla Bonnici, 13, who wrote and sang the musical score that plays during the first scenes as her character battles for survival following a horrific car accident, said the story is gripping.

"I loved acting in those scenes," said Ms Bonnici, who won the Australian Country Music Association's song writing division for juniors last year.

Green Fire Envy was made as part of a part-time 12-month course at Sydney's Participate Film Academy, which until recently was the only film school in the world offering the chance to make a feature film.

Already pinching themselves after securing the funds to complete the low-budget thriller, the film school students are celebrating again after news the movie will premiere at Fox Studios Hoyts cinema on March 19.