When Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry and Mary J. Blige are just part of a news conference panel, you can be fairly sure something big is going on.

Add such names as director Lee Daniels, actors Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd and newcomer Gabby Sidibe, and what you've got is a gathering on behalf of the movie Precious. The full name of the film is Precious: Based On The Novel 'Push' By Sapphire, so that fans of the book won't somehow miss this transformation onto the big screen. Sapphire herself was in attendance yesterday.

This group chat with the media took place a few hours before the movie had its gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. What quickly became evident is that the movie is a labour of love for all concerned.

Precious is the story of a young woman in Harlem whose life is beyond desperate. She is obese, friendless, pregnant through incest, endlessly abused by her mother, ridiculed by the other kids in the neighbourhood and about to be tossed out of school.

When the opportunity comes to attend an alternative school, Precious takes it. With the help of her teacher, played by Paula Patton, Precious begins to see that she has certain options. Against extraordinary odds, she begins to make a life for herself.

Starting with director Daniels' assertion that faith in God is what it took to get the book made into a movie, everyone involved spoke about what it meant to them to be a part of the film.

Asked how she'd address people put off by the sound of the plot, Winfrey said, "It is so raw, it will suck the air out of the room at the end of the film, and that's a very good thing. When I finished watching this film, the first thing I did was call Tyler (Perry) to get Lee's number and tell him how I was gasping for air. I think it's a good thing that we are taken to that level of engagement with this film."

Perry said, "For anyone who has endured this kind of situation, me being one of those people, it left me with hope. I think that if people really saw it for what it is, and understood the power of making it through that kind of situation, I don't think it's dark at all, as much as what it leaves you with at the end is hope. Precious walks away with her life and her faith and her love, for the first time, for her children."

The character of Precious shows the world a tough face, but she has a rich imagination and an inner voice that's smart and philosophical.

The story's novelist, Sapphire, said "people would often come up to me after reading the book and say, 'Well, we've never seen a character like Precious before,' but of course they had seen her every day, but they had passed her by. They had dismissed her because of her appearance, because of her inability to read, because of her inability to function in the culture. My mission as a writer was to give her a voice and soul that would not allow her to be dismissed by society."

Added Winfrey, "When I finished watching that movie, I literally had to breathe. I didn't cry until the card came up, with "For Precious Girls Everywhere," and I recognized myself in that character, and most of all I recognized that I have seen the Precious girls of the world, and they have been invisible to me. The message of that movie is that none of us who sees the film can now walk through the world and allow the Preciouses of the world to be invisible to us again."

Mariah Carey said, "We were crying between scenes. It was emotional. It was deep for us. The cameramen were crying."

Mary J. Blige, who wrote a special song for the movie, said, "When I saw the film, all I could think about was growing up in my neighbourhood and knowing that girl, or even that guy who was Precious, and actually living in those situations myself and having some of the things that happened to Precious happen to me. And while those things were happening to me, from the time I was five until I was in my late 20s, my life seemed, like, I saw everything in black and white.

"I never dealt with the issues Precious had to deal with, I had never dealt with the fact that I was molested as a child. I never dealt with that. I never dealt with the fact that I watched family members, young men, suffer the same exact thing Precious suffered -- and die because they didn't want to live in that situation anymore. For me, everything was in black and white. And the reason I named the song I Can See In Color is because when I finally ... got to the point where I thought, 'I just can't live like this any more,' everything turned to colour.

"I wanted people to understand it's a very, very dark place -- and in order to be free you have to want to be free. I came from my own life experience, and I put lyrics to the song that best describe what the film is."

Paula Patton, who plays Precious' teacher, talked a bit about the teacher's role in the lives of these underprivileged girls. Among other things, the teacher lets the girls know that this is their last chance. "An education is your only way -- your only way" Patton said. "I remember my father, who grew up in Como, Miss., the son of a sharecropper. I remember him saying, 'Every black person, with an education, you can change your life.'" Patton, overwhelmed with emotion, paused briefly while she struggled not to cry. "You start with the alphabet and from there you can conquer the world."

Gabby Sidibe, the acting newcomer who plays Precious, said, "Before, I was a psych student and a receptionist. I've grown as a person. Not that I have a big head 'cause I'm an actress, and I'm awesome now -- I fully believed that I was awesome then! The weird thing is, I got so much education on set, being around these people I admire. It's an education I wasn't getting in college, an education I wasn't getting as a receptionist. I'm a smart girl, but now I have a different knowledge of how life can be. I had no business going to that audition, but the biggest thing I learned is that I was wrong about what I could do. I thought I'd be a receptionist for the rest of my life."