GAY+HIV+= David？
Cui Zien
Release year: 2008
Run time: 90 min
Film type: Documentary
Synopsis
David was the first gay, HIV+ person to appear on CCTV. What kind of person is he? Why did he want to expose himself in public? How did this exposure affect his daily life? How did his coming out affect society? This film will answer these questions.
Director biography
Cui Zi’en (born Heilongjiang, 1958) is a film director, essayist, and novelist. He became known in the 1990s as an outspoken queer activist. He is known as an avant-garde underground director in China. His notable films about homosexuality include the documentary Queer China, Comrade China (2009), which deals with changes in Chinese LGBT culture over the last 30 years. He has written books on theory and criticism as well as publishing nine novels in China and Hong Kong, one of which, Uncle’s Past, won the 2001 Radio Literature Award in Germany. He also taught at the Beijing Film Academy.
Director's statement
I consider myself to be the first gay person to come out on Chinese TV. In this way I was affecting society by making it more open, yet I also felt pressure from society’s conservatism. My teaching, writing and publishing were restricted. David has since come out. He is very young, and is HIV+. Unlike me, he has no job, nor has he status as an intellectual or artist. He also has no support from the international media. What is the price he will pay for coming out? Does he have the power to cope with this price? Will he regret his decision? Will he fall into despair? Will he commit suicide? Will he be destroyed? Or will he gain instant fame? Will he consider himself a representative for all gays with HIV? What will he say? How will the government or related NGOs treat him? Will they be supportive of him, or will they oppose him? Will they abandon him? These are the questions we seek to answer; thus my partners and I have started to shoot this documentary, despite not yet having any financial support.