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The Dying Rooms

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The Dying Rooms
Directed byKate Blewett
Brian Woods
Production
company
Lauderdale Production
Distributed byChannel 4
Release date
  • 1995 (1995)
Running time
38 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Dying Rooms is a 1995 television documentary film about Chinese state orphanages.[1] It was directed by Kate Blewett and Brian Woods and produced by Lauderdale Productions. It first aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and in 1996, was aired on Cinemax.[2][3] A follow-up film, Return to the Dying Rooms, was released in 1996.[4] In 1996, the film won a Peabody Award.[5] It also won a News & Documentary Emmy Award.[6][7]

Synopsis

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In the film, Blewett and others travel to Mainland China to visit orphanages that housed children who were abandoned as a result of the "one-child policy". The filmmakers stated that unwanted female and disabled children were left to die of neglect, which would enable the child's parents to have another child. While filming, the crew used hidden cameras to collect footage and Blewett used a false name while visiting the orphanages.[3][8]

Reception

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After its release, the Mainland Chinese government repudiated the documentary's claims, stating that Blewett fabricated the claims in the documentary.[9][10] A rebuttal to the documentary, The Dying Rooms: A Patchwork of Lies, was also filmed.[4] The documentary was also criticized by Irish charity Health Action Overseas. Two Irish aid coordinators for the charity traveled to China to visit the orphanages and reported that the claims in both The Dying Rooms and Return to the Dying Rooms were "wholly exaggerated, and almost completely without substance".[11]

In Patrick Tyler's review of Blewett's film, the New York Times stated that "Compelling images of neglect were captured on tape at this orphanage, and the rebuttal offered by the Government did not succeed in addressing the poor condition of the infants found on the day of the film crew's visit."[4] Walter Goodman also reviewed the film for the paper, stating that "Kate Blewett, Brian Woods and Peter Hugh have not made a balanced or polished documentary. But more importantly, they have raised international concern over the fate of the children glimpsed here, some of whom have already joined countless others in unmarked graves."[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Keep up pressure over "dying rooms", urges TV producer". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  2. ^ Thurston, Anne F. (1 April 1996). "In a Chinese Orphanage". The Atlantic. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b "British filmmaker KATE BLEWETT". NPR.org. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Tyler, Patrick E. (21 January 1996). "TELEVISION;In China's Orphanages, a War of Perception". New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  5. ^ "The Dying Rooms". The Peabody Awards. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  6. ^ "'Lost' childhood // Film shows cruelty to boys and girls". Chicago Sun-Times. 11 June 1998. Archived from the original on 15 September 2018.
  7. ^ "THE 17TH ANNUAL NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS PRESENTED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES" (PDF). NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES.
  8. ^ Volkman, Toby Alice (2005). Cultures of transnational adoption. Duke University Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780822335764.
  9. ^ "The Description and Accusations About China's Children's Welfare Institutions by Britain's Channel Four and the Human Rights Watch/Asia Do Not Hold Water". People's Daily Online. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  10. ^ Hilsdon, Anne-Marie; Macintyre, Martha; Mackie, Vera; Stivens, Maila (12 November 2012). Human Rights and Gender Politics: Asia-Pacific Perspectives. Routledge. p. 98. ISBN 9781135117870.
  11. ^ "CHINA'S CHILDREN". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  12. ^ Goodman, Walter (24 January 1996). "TELEVISION REVIEW;The Film at the Root of the Outcry Over Orphans". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
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