Richard Curtis helps show real Notting Hill

Richard Curtis, the British film director, has attempted to make amends for the 1999 romcom Notting Hill, by helping a group of pupils, all from local council estates, to make a documentary that shows the eponymous area of West London in which the movie is set in a more realistic way.

Out goes Hugh Grant falling in love with Julia Roberts amid a cast of all-white professionals and multi-million pound villas. In come race riots and immigration. Entitled Grove Roots (see trailer below), it starts with a band of Jamaican immigrants greeted with signs declaring "No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs", an infamous warning that used to appear in the windows of cheap hotels and boarding houses in the 1950s, and ends with the arrival of rich "Notting Hillbillies".

The world premiere will be staged tonight at the Electric cinema in Portobello Road, before the film opens in 20 cinemas across London. Curtis, who appears in the film, admits that he was "asking for trouble" by naming his all-white, middle-class romantic comedy after the multi-ethnic west London district. However, the eight young film-makers, all aged between 14 and 18, still wanted him to help with the documentary as he made the area famous.

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.