STUDENTS ENJOY TITANIC 'GHOSTS'.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Just a toddler when the Academy Award-winning film ``Titanic'' came out in 1997, 9-year-old Sean Hirst knew that the 1912 sinking of the luxury liner was no Hollywood invention.

After watching a sneak preview of the 3-D documentary film ``Ghosts of the Abyss'' on Thursday with hundreds of students at the Valencia Stadium 12 theater, however, the third-grader had a clearer grasp of the doomed ship and the sediment grave on which it came to rest 91 years ago.

``It was amazing that some of the glass and windows could still make it through the crash (on the sea floor),'' he said before returning to Pinecrest School in Canyon Country. ``And I didn't know that some people just stayed in their cabins and waited.''

More than 6,000 students and teachers across four time zones simultaneously watched the one-hour documentary Thursday before participating in a live, ``virtual classroom'' discussion with director James Cameron, narrator Bill Paxton and ``Today'' show host Katie Couric.

After making the highest-grossing movie ever, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Cameron returned to the depths of the Northern Atlantic in 2001 - with unmatched camera drones and technology - to explore the bowels of RMS Titanic.

On a Russian research ship with biologists, historians and other specialists, Cameron organized the launch of two submersible crafts designed to withstand the mind-bending pressure that exists 2.5 miles below the water's surface.

Awed in the presence of such history, the team discovered brass and wooden beds, clothing and intact stained glass windows that marked the ship's opulence.

The result of that expedition, ``Ghosts of the Abyss,'' opens today in 80 movie theaters across the country, but only in IMAX theaters or others with specially outfitted 35mm screens.

Shortly after the documentary played on 13 screens from Atlanta to Chicago to Los Angeles, Couric, Cameron and Paxton, who also appeared in the 1997 film, appeared on the wide screen at the Valencia theater and took calls from students around the country.

The 200 elementary through high school students sat in silence at the Valencia theater - 3-D glasses resting on their noses - for most of the documentary, but were visibly disappointed when technical difficulties robbed them of the final few minutes of the film.

Casey Crockett, a junior at Saugus High, said he never really knew much about the ship labeled unsinkable before its maiden voyage.

Classmate Andrew Neal, 15, had studied some history about the tragedy that claimed nearly 1,500 lives, but realized after the documentary screening that this latest film discovered items not seen since the ship hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912.

``I really like James Cameron's work. With this, I learned about the actual people who were on the ship,'' Neal said. ``The different shoes, hats - those things actually belonged to people on the ship.''

While many students said they enjoyed the film more than the virtual discussion, the crowd erupted in applause when Nancy Ramos, a senior at Santa Paula High School, asked a question via telephone for the Valencia students.

When Cameron learned the student was watching in Santa Clarita, he said a special ``hello'' to the city where his brother resides.

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Santa Paula High School student Nancy Ramos questions director James Cameron and actor Bill Paxton about their new film, ``Ghosts of the Abyss.'' Ramos and other students saw the film about the Titanic on Thursday in Valencia.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer