BLOOD OF THE YINGZHOU DISTRICT

World Premiere

"Extend your arm, bear the pain of a needle. Then flex your arm, 50 Yuan is earned."

This was one of many jingles created by blood banks in China, which rural people committed to memory. But due to unsafe practices, thousands of impoverished Chinese contract HIV and other diseases through contaminated blood, often leaving behind orphaned children to raise each other or depend on compassionate families for support.

Hong Kong-born filmmaker Ruby Yang and award-winning producer Thomas Lennon followed these orphans in the rural villages of Yingzhou District for one year. One of them, Gau Jun, was abandoned by his family and refuses to utter a word. He is a victim of social stigma and a government that has failed to support its citizens. Neighbors prevent their children from playing with him, and his own extended family rejects him, fearing their own children will be isolated.

THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT is a stunningly shot, sensitive portrait of a hidden AIDS epidemic in a country not commonly associated with the disease. The film follows Gau Jun silently as he becomes part of a family and is accepted for the first time as the beautiful, wondrous child that he is.

-Nina Gilden Seavey

DIRECTOR BIO
Ruby Yang, originally from Hong Kong, has explored a range of Chinese themes through documentary and television. Yang served as Series Editor for Bill Moyers' BECOMING AMERICAN-THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE (PBS, March 2003), and is now based in Beijing, directing public service announcements and a wide range of documentary work as part of the China AIDS Media Project. In collaboration with filmmaker Thomas Lennon, this AIDS prevention campaign on Chinese airwaves will, by the close of 2006, have reached hundreds of millions of viewers

Print Source:
Thomas Lennon
The China AIDS Media Project
c/o Sesame Workshop
1 Lincoln Plaza, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10022
212.875.6181
tl@thomaslennonfilms.com

6/14 at 7:00 PM

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