A 17-member team is shooting a documentary about the major earthquake in southwestern Sichuan Province, to be released in the latter half of this year.

The documentary is provisionally titled Wenchuan, the county that was the epicenter of the 8.0-magnitude quake that struck on May 12, the China Film Group Corporation said on Wednesday in a statement.

The crew has been filming the rescue and relief work in Mianyang city and Wenchuan since May 14, two days after the quake.

"We would like to record the facts of a serious disaster and the spirit of the people who are fighting against it," said the corporation, which sponsored the documentary jointly with two other film production firms, Sichuan-based Emei Film Group and August First Film Studio run by the Chinese military force.

The quake death toll had reached 41,353 as of Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)