The Dying Rooms is a 1995 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about Chinese state orphanages. It was directed by Kate Blewett

Kate Blewett

Kate Blewett is a documentary film-maker in the United Kingdom. She is best known for her documentaries on human rights abuses, such as The Dying Rooms.- Life :...

 and Brian Woods

Brian Woods

Brian Woods is a BAFTA award-winning British documentary film-maker, who founded and currently runs True Vision, an independent production company, which concentrates mainly on human rights-related subjects...

 and produced by Lauderdale Productions.

Plot and production

The film was produced over the course of two years. Kate Blewett, Brian Woods and Peter Woolrich all pretended to work in the orphanages that would be the focus of the film. They found evidence that very young children were deliberately neglected and allowed to die in agonizing ways. The three naturally became distressed, but nonetheless completed the film

Reception

The Dying Rooms was televised in 26 nations and prompted an enormous outcry. In 1996 it won the Peabody award

Peabody Award

The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...

.