[Peace] Fwd: AEMS Film Screening: The Blood of Yingzhou District

[Brian Dolinar]

*_Asian Educational Media Service Film Screening_*
*The Blood of Yingzhou District*

In Chinese with English subtitles

Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 7:00 p.m. - 40 minutes

Armory, Room 101, 505 E. Armory Ave., Champaign

FREE ADMISSION


[Please note that this is a room change from an earlier announcement]


"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. This film follows a year in the life
of some of these children in the remote villages of Yingzhou District, Anhui
Province, China. Traditional obligations to family and village collide with
terror of the disease.


No-one knows how old Gao Jun is. Four? Older? Younger? Whatever his
biological age, he has none of the verbal babble, or ready tears, of a child
his age. The film tracks this orphan for a year as his closest surviving kin
-- his uncles -- weigh what to do with him. The older uncle's dilemma: if he
allows his children to play with Gao Jun, who is HIV-positive, they will be
ostracized by terrified neighbors. The younger uncle's dilemma: so long as
Gao Jun remains in the house, the young man may not be able to find a wife.


Gao Jun is one of just a handful of children we come to know in this film:
Nan Nan, who after her parents' death, was shunned by relatives and left to
live without adult care with "Little Flower," her teenage sister; and the
Huang siblings, who vividly describe their ostracism at school. The
suffering of these orphans is all the more devastating for being largely
unnecessary, the function of misinformation about the nature of the disease.


Yet the film is more than a mere catalogue of woes. Nan Nan reveals her
impish humor and joy; the Huang children resolve to become educated and
outstrip those who shun them; and Gao Jun, in the closing scenes,
demonstrates his ferocious determination to live.





*The Blood of Yingzhou District*

Awards:

Winner, 2007 Academy Awards, Best Documentary Short

Excellence in Media Award, Global Health Council Annual International
Conference, 2007

Winner, Audience Award, Thessaloniki International Documentary Film
Festival, 2007

Winner, Grand Jury Award, Silverdocs Documentary Festival, 2006

Winner, Humanitarian Award, Chicago International Documentary Festival, 2007

Winner, Jury Prize, Documenta Madrid Film Festival, 2007

Winner, Jury Prize, RiverRun International Film Festival, 2007

Official Selection, Margaret Mead Film Festival, 2006

Official Selection, United Nations Association Film Festival, 2006

Film Website

<http://www.bloodofyingzhou.com/>

Article - Washington Post

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR20
06062201925.html> <%3chttp://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR200606220
1925.html%3e>

Article - Vancouver Sun <
http://www.canada.com/cityguides/vancouver/story.html?id=f5b627e6-ff
fa-4c4e-84b3-8f215b7dc367&k=87825> <
http://www.canada.com/cityguides/vancouver/story.html?id=f5b627e6-ff
fa-4c4e-84b3-8f215b7dc367&k=87825>

Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) is a program of the Center for East
Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois. AEMS has a mission
to promote understanding of Asian cultures and peoples and to assist
educators at all levels, from elementary schools to colleges and
universities, in finding multimedia resources for learning and teaching
about Asia. Please visit our website for more information.
http://www.aems.uiuc.edu <http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/>

--
________________
Jason Finkelman

Events Coordinator
Asian Educational Media Service

Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
805 West Pennsylvania Avenue, MC-025
Urbana, IL 61801

TEL: 217-265-0640
FAX: 217-265-0641
finkelma at uiuc.edu
www.aems.uiuc.edu


-- 



-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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