Screening the law in China: law, image and evidence in three documentaries on HIV/AIDS cases by Ai Xiaoming

Abstract

This article examines three films by the Chinese feminist scholar and documentary filmmaker Ai Xiaoming on the HIV blood scandal in China, in which victims who became infected with the human immunodeficiency virus through blood donations and blood transfusions often failed to obtain compensation from the government or the law courts. The law fails to ensure a just outcome. Drawing on the recent work of scholars working on law and image, and especially new scholarship on the relationship between law, film, affect and ethics, this article argues that Ai's documentaries present a series of imagistic evidence against the law, and in doing so puts the law on trial.