The cast (from left) Hu Zetao, Li Danyang, Zhang Ziyi and Jiang Wenli promote Gu Changwei's new film and documentary in Beijing. [China Daily]

Gu Changwei's feature film about AIDS comes with a documentary about the real roles of six HIV-positive people who worked on the movie.

Fiction is not powerful enough for director Gu Changwei, whose new feature film, Life is a Miracle, is the subject of Together, a documentary about AIDS patients. Six HIV-positive people joined the film crew for Miracle, a bitter romance about two youngsters affected by the fatal disease. Zhang Ziyi and Aaron Kwok lead the cast.

Gu invited the HIV-positive crew members to make the film more convincing, and to emphasize his team's anti-discriminatory attitude to those afflicted with the disease. Before filming, Gu's wife Jiang Wenli, who also stars in the film, suggested he make a documentary at the same time. Jiang has worked as an ambassador for AIDS prevention for eight years.

"You will see in the documentary how people interact with the patients," Gu tells China Daily.

It was a tough task, however, for director Zhao Liang, who directed the documentary under Gu's supervision, to find six HIV-positive people who were willing to be filmed.

Zhao started with online communities for the group. He talked to them and won their trust before making the invitation. Still, most of them refused him.

"My mother would collapse if she saw me on the screen," one HIV-positive person told Zhao. "Nobody will talk to me if they know I am an HIV carrier," said another.