That remark brought her views as close as possible to those of her father William Hinton, author of Fanshen and other tomes extolling Mao's vision of proletarian revolution, who thinks the current leaders have turned their backs on socialism.
Her father was far from happy with her previous film, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, which examined the crushing of the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centered on Tiananmen square. He thought the students, who were opposing a regime he saw as no longer faithful to Mao, were unfairly depicted.
But despite her father's loyalty to Mao, Carma Hinton still found it hard to access precious documents for Morning Sun.
Although many of the people featured in the film still live in China, they were interviewed in the US, because it is "very difficult to do any filming in China," she said, adding that black and white archival footage used in the documentary was collected over a 20-year period.
"Some people [working for state-run media] made copies for themselves and it eventually came out [of China]," Hinton said.
"I wouldn't even bother to ask the Chinese authorities for permission to film because I know it it's a no," she said.
"You can't go to the front door and say we'd like to look at the archives of this period and buy footage ... But one day [when] China is completely open enough to reveal its entire archives, other filmmakers will be able to find other materials to put together other aspects of the story and I can't wait till that day."
For now, whatever material Hinton and her team can find, will make it to a Web site on the subject, www.morningsun.org.
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