What do  you do when you're born into difficult life circumstances? Do you go around living bitterly blaming everything from your parents, your country, society and even God for this life that was given to you, though you never ask for it, or do you make the best of whatever you have now, and fight for a better life?

That was the question that lingered in my mind as I watched Living With The Tiger, an upcoming documentary from Thailand that is gonna be featured this Thursday (22nd September 2011) as part of the Singapore film festival.

Described as "hugely empowering and uplifting" (George Lowe, CNNgo) and contains "powerful important messages" (The Nation newspaper), Living With The Tiger follows the story of Baan Gerda, a home which provides care for HIV infected children who were otherwise left to die alone without family nor friends. The film further focuses on the children's participation in an opera production and the story of two children in it, Oy and Bla.

What I liked about this film was instead of painting it with the grim reality of the disease like the ones that you would usually get with heart wrenching stories and statistics, the film instead chose to focus on the positive side of it. It shows the remarkable resilience in these kids that despite all their circumstances, they're able to choose to focus on the bright side of life and make the best out of it.

Content and meaning wise, Living With The Tiger has it. It's a movie that you should watch to understand the negativity surrounding HIV patients, particularly children who never asked to be born with this disease in them. It challenges you in a way to see life from a different perspective, one that isn't that lucky and makes you glad to have what you have now. And perhaps it will move you do give back the blessings that you have to those who are not as fortunate.

What the movie needs now is publicity and awareness. Limited by the budget they have due to it being a non-profit movie, it needs all the help it can get. If you're not persuaded, you can take a look at the movie yourself. It will be premiering this coming 22nd of September, 2011, 9.30pm at Shaw Lido cinemas, Singapore and tickets can be bought from www.sistic.com.sg. See for yourself the movie and decide whether the message is worth spreading or not. For more info you can visit the film's official website at http://www.livingwiththetiger.com.