She described the experience of being led to the house of the Huang family, which once was a happy home to five people, before AIDS took the life of the parents about three months ago.

"It was full of empty medicine bottles and worn out toys, and children's scribbles covered the walls. But it was the smell--the smell of death--that had a deep impact on me," Yang said.

Yang's tight schedule has left the fieldwork entirely to the hired Chinese film crew, notably Beijing cinematographer Qu Jiangtao. He said the shooting experience, which consisted of over 10 visits to Yingzhou over a period of one year, has taught him how to deal with people living with HIV/AIDS.

He admitted the depression of seeing the harsh living conditions of AIDS orphans haunted him for a while, but he said he was happy to witness the change of people's attitudes and improvement of orphans' health conditions during the course of the year. The first time he ate together with a family living with HIV/AIDS he felt uneasy, despite understanding how the disease is spread. Towards the end of his shooting, he became a "big brother" to Ren Nannan, and often played with her.

"It is silly that some people suggest a daily shower can avoid the risk of being infected with the AIDS virus, as particles of the disease fall on people's skin," said Qu commenting on an online post he saw recently.

Yang said during her three-year-stay in Beijing, she has spotted a positive change of public attitude towards AIDS, both in big cities and in the countryside. "All sorts of media are talking about not to discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDs," she said. "But China is a huge place and there is still a lot of work to be done."

The latest development for children in the documentary is that four children featured in the documentary, with another11 AIDS orphans from different provinces, visited Premier Wen Jiabao's office at his invitation on World AIDS Day, December 1.

Controversies rising

Yang and Qu admire each other's meticulous working styles, but they said they have had severe differences about editing the documentary.

"I have shot material of over 70 hours, which is long enough to be edited into a five-hour documentary series. A lot of good material has been wasted in the process of making this 39-minute version," complained Qu Jiangtao.

Qu also found Yang's editing hard to understand. Different from his former directors and editors who favor more scenic shooting on a tripod, Yang selected not-so-beautiful close-up scenes he took with a hand held camera. Her confidence in her editing ability partly comes from her Hong Kong background and many years spent in the U.S., which puts her in a good position to understand the mindset of both eastern and western culture.

Although the documentary had its world premiere last June, it hasn't yet been seen by a wide Chinese audience. Xiong Lei, a retired senior health care reporter from Xinhua News Agency, is one of earliest Chinese viewers. She watched the documentary last August when it was screened to journalists participating in an HIV/AIDS media training program prior to the International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Despite the documentary's distinctions of winning an Oscar nomination and the Grand Jury Award at Silverdocs Documentary Festival in the U.S., Xiong says she doesn't like the documentary.

Xiong, who has covered incidents of AIDS orphans for years, questioned the overall credibility of the documentary. Her argument is that the documentary quotes a singular information source--a businesswoman-turned-philanthropist, Zhang Ying. "It seems to me that the documentary intends to give publicity to Zhang although the cast have repeatedly said that they are trying to depict a social problem," wrote Xiong Lei on her blog.

Zhang, who founded and runs the non-governmental Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association, specialized in supporting children affected by AIDS, has earned herself national fame as "mother of AIDS orphans." A report on the nation's influential Southern Weekly newspaper in December 2005 questioned Zhang's integrity in her unsupervised use of raised funds.

Yang Ziye said she was introduced to Zhang by accident in 2004. Zhang gave the film crew access to orphans under her aid programs. Zhang's presence with the film crew helped to earn the trust of local farmers.

"As filmmakers, we don't feel it is our role to endorse or promote any particular organization devoted to orphan care," said Yang. While Zhang has not been identified during the documentary, Yang has listed the contact information of Zhang's organization with that of three other organizations involved in orphan care in China at the end of every film screening. "We have many letters from our overseas audiences who want to help the children in the film," she said.