NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Following its critically acclaimed debut at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the recent showing at the Shanghai Film Festival, Nanking will receive its first theatrical release in China on July 7.

    Producer Ted Leonsis, Academy Award-winning director Bill Guttentag and co-director Dan Sturman will attend the July 3 premiere of the film at the National Political Consultative Auditorium in Beijing.

    Nanking will be released in China by Hua Xia, China's second largest film distributor, with rollout beginning on July 7 marking the 70th Anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japan.

    In North America, it will be released by THINKFilm in December 2007 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the massacres in Nanking.

    Nanking tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking - which was then China's capital - to months of aerial bombardment, and when it fell, the Japanese army engaged in murder and rape on a horrifying scale.

    In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors, and businessmen - including a German member of the Nazi party - bore witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter.

    The story is told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, chilling archival footage and photos of the events, and testimonies of former Japanese soldiers.

    Another essential stage of pre-production was finding Chinese survivors to take part in the film.

    In December 2005, Co-Producer Violet Du Feng traveled to Nanjing to meet with over 30 survivors.

    Shooting in Japan was more difficult because the subject of Nanking is so controversial there. It was challenging to find former Japanese soldiers willing to talk about their experiences in Nanking. The Japanese soldiers who participated in the film were found through members of the Japanese peace movement.

    Upon returning from Asia, the Nanking production team began the final piece of the filming - the staged reading with actors.

    Nanking is a testament to the courage and conviction of individuals who were determined to act in the face of evil and a powerful tribute to the resilience of the Chinese people -- a gripping account of light in the darkest of times, said the documentary's notes released by ThinkFilm, the distributor.