The Blood of Yingzhou District

Last year's Oscar winner for Best Documentary Short Subject, Ruby Yang's The Blood of Yingzhou District exposes the discrimination in a Chinese village experienced by both pediatric AIDS victims and the healthy children of adults who died from AIDS, a disease which appears to be far more rampant in China than previously reported. The cases in this film resulted from impoverished villagers selling their blood for a meager sum under unsafe medical conditions, which is how the virus took root. The villagers are apparently 20 years behind the times when it comes to understanding AIDS, and any child who either has the disease or whose parent passed away is treated like a pariah by the schools, other children, and even their own families. One man whose nephew is HIV-positive and whose parents died from AIDS plans to send the child into the foster care system because he would otherwise be unable to find a wife (apparently no woman will set foot in the house with an HIV-positive child around). At a time when the Western media is playing up China's growing economic power, this film hauntingly illustrates the poverty (both financial and intellectual) in areas beyond Beijing and Shanghai. A deeply disturbing documentary, this is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)