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To Live is Better Than to Die
AIDS in China
| Length: | 60 min |
| Released: | 2003 |
| Ages: |
High School College Adult |
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This is a heartbreaking story from Wenlou, a small village in central China, where 60% of the villagers are infected with HIV. There are at least 250,000 people in seven provinces in central China who were infected as a result of a blood donor program in the early nineties. Impoverished peasants sold their blood to clinics that used unsanitary gathering methods. Nevertheless, the government does not offer any help or compensation, and has supressed protests from the villagers with force.
China's health care system has fared poorly in the transition from socialism to capitalism. This is especially evident in the villages. The director spent months in Wenlou with farmer Ma Shengyi and his family. Ma Shengyi, his wife and two of their three children are all infected. He brings to the screen a real-life picture of an ordinary Chinese family devoured by a disease caused by official negligence and then being persecuted by the government in their struggle for help.
China's health care system has fared poorly in the transition from socialism to capitalism. This is especially evident in the villages. The director spent months in Wenlou with farmer Ma Shengyi and his family. Ma Shengyi, his wife and two of their three children are all infected. He brings to the screen a real-life picture of an ordinary Chinese family devoured by a disease caused by official negligence and then being persecuted by the government in their struggle for help.
"Highly Recommended." EMRO
"Chen is one of China's few independent documentary filmmakers...Unsurprisingly it is the kind of film that makes the Chinese authorities squirm" Time Magazine
"Chen is one of China's few independent documentary filmmakers...Unsurprisingly it is the kind of film that makes the Chinese authorities squirm" Time Magazine
Sundance Film Festival, 2003
ALA Notable Films for Adults, 2004
ALA Notable Films for Adults, 2004
