The footage, produced by George Lemer and Christine Aschwanden, examines the lingering effects of the toxic chemical on many Vietnamese people more than three decades after the war.

Lemer and Aschwanden met directly with AO victims, including war veteran Nguyen Thanh Son who joined battles in the chemical spraying areas and his two children Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong and Nguyen Thanh Tung. Since her birth in 1975, Thuy has not been able to see, talk, sit herself or hold anything. Despite her age, she looks like a three-year-old child. Meanwhile, her younger brother Tung became blind after his birth in 1979.

Reporters also met with Dang Hong Nhat who was present at the Cu Chi underground tunnel during wartime and now is director of a vocational training centre for disabled children and orphans. She recalled that she had experienced several abortions and that a deformed foetus had been found dead in the womb during her six-month pregnancy in 1977. Later test results showed that the content of dioxin in her body remains high.

The footage was screened before the US Court of Appeals begins a court case in New York on June 18 between Vietnamese AO victims and US chemical companies.

Ms Nhat said that though the US Court of Instance dismissed the lawsuit by the Vietnamese victims, the world public is well aware of the consequences of the chemical lingering on many Vietnamese people. She expressed her hope that the coming court would waken the humanitarianism of mankind.