NO ONE KNOWS how old Gao Jun is. The little boy with the watchful eyes hasn't spoken since his mother and father died of Aids. The same indifference has befallen all three Huang children, who became HIV-positive through their parents.
Then there's Nannan, a 14-year-old, HIV-positive orphan who faces an uncertain future on her own when her sister Xiaohua marries. It's a secret her future husband's family could never come to terms with.
These stories from Yingzhou, Anhui province, are just the tip of the iceberg - there are perhaps tens of thousands of Aids orphans fighting to survive on the mainland, often living in dire poverty and neglected by their closest relatives. Many were orphaned by impoverished parents who sold blood for money in the 1990s, contracting HIV through unhygienic practices. But the story of their plight won't be confined to their villages any longer, because a documentary about these neglected children is in the running for an Academy Award.
For Hong Kong-born director Ruby Yang and New York producer Thomas Lennon, the nomination of The Blood of Yingzhou District is a personal triumph, as well as a lifeline of hope for the orphans. 'I'm very proud and I think it's a validation of being an artist,' says Yang. 'I think also the stories themselves are very powerful.
'I met and worked with [Aids-inflicted] people in the US in the art world. And I understand stigma. But in China it was my first time meeting children with Aids. It was heartbreaking. They were doubly stigmatised as orphans and being HIV-positive.'
The 39-minute documentary has already won the grand jury award at the 2006 Silverdocs documentary film festival and was nominated for three other prizes: two at the International Documentary Association Awards, and the third at the DOCNZ International Documentary Festival in Auckland. It was shown in Hong Kong on December 1 last year for World Aids Day.