WHEN A ROCKET SITS ON THE LAUNCH PAD
​​​​​by Bohao Liu

12min | China/USA| 2023

At the basketball camp, 15-year-old Fang talks about her dreams. But life never stops, it moves too fast. Her phone fell into water. There are too many stairs to climb. The adults seem to decide her future. And the rocket keeps being launched every month.

Original Title Huo jian fa she shi​
Year of production 2023
Length 12'
Country China/USA
Shooting Format Digital
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Dialogue Mandarin, Sichuan Yi​
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Director Bohao Liu
Producers Bohao Liu, Gene Gallerano
Production Toyork Films
Writer Bohao Liu
Cinematographer Bohao Liu
Editor Bohao Liu
Music Caleb Freundlich
Sound Designer Bohao Liu
Poster Design Yanqi Liang
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Website
​Toyork Films

Festival selections
Berlinale Generation 2023, Germany - World Premiere
​CHAI. Chinese Filmfestival Leipzig 2023, Germany
​​​​Huesca International Film Festival 2023, Spain
​Adriatic Film Festival 2023, Italy​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
​TIFF ODA - Tetova International Film Festival 2023, Republic of Macedonia - Best Short Documentary Award
Svaneti International Film Festival 2023, Georgia
​​MDOC - Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival 2023, Portugal
​Concorto Film Festival 2023, Italy
​Interaction: Short Docs Festival 2023, Serbia
​​​​​Tirana International Film Festival 2023, Albania ​
​Festival Allers-Retours 2023, France
​Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival 2023, Taiwan
​International Documentary Films Festival for Young Audiences "Let's Doc" 2023, Poland
DOC NYC 2023, USA - Special Mention
Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2023, Switzerland
​Festival International du Film d’Amiens 2023, France
Tangier International Film Festival 2023, Morocco - Best Script Award
​Baku International Short Film Festival 2023, Azerbaijan - Jury Special Mention
​Izmir International Short Film Festival 2023, Turkey
​Porto/Post/Doc: Film & Media Festival 2023, Portugal
Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People 2023, Greece
Macau International Short Film Festival 2023
​Beijing International Short Film Festival 2023, China - Best Film Award
Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival 2023, China
Cairo International Short Film Festival 2023, Egypt
Mint Chinese Film Festival 2024, UK - Jury Prize
Festival de Cine de Medina del Campo 2024, Spain
​ZOOM - ZBLIZENIA International Film Festival 2024, Poland
​​BUFF Malmö Filmfestival 2024, Sweden
​Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay 2024
​​Akbank International Short Film Festival 2024, Turkey
​Friss Hús Budapest International Short Film Festival 2024, Hungary
Rooftop Films 2024, USA
​​LIFE AFTER OIL International Film Festival 2024, Italy
​Mecal, Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes y Animación de Barcelona 2024, Spain
​​New York Asian Film Festival 2024, USA
​Andaras Traveling Film Festival 2024, Italy
OpenEyes Film Festival 2024, Germany
​​La Guarimba Film Festival 2024, Italy
​Galichnik Film Festival 2024, North Macedonia
​Beyond Borders International Documentary Festival 2024, Greece
​Minikino Film Week 2024, Indonesia
​Zaporizhzhia International Film Festival 2024, Ukraine
New York City Short Film Festival 2024, USA - Best Documentary Award
​Come on, doc! 2024, Serbia
​Plons! International Short Documentary Film Festival 2024, Netherlands
​Zsigmond Vilmos International Film Festival 2024, Hungary
​​Ha Noi International Film Festival 2024, Vietnam
​"Prvi kadar" International Film Festival 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina
​
Director's Statement
The first idea of returning to Liangshan was to make a revisit to the subjects and places in my previous documentary.
I wanted to shoot something, but I had no story idea at all.
I only knew that the launch pad was nearby in Xichang, Liangshan. I really wanted to watch the rocket launching in person. The main character, Xiaofang, is the best female player of the Liangshan Black Eagles team.
When we all had dinner together one night, she was wearing a Houston Rockets jersey and looked sullen. I asked her what happened. It turned out that her phone had dropped into the water when swimming in her secret pond.
I started asking her what to do, took out my pen and wrote the script on the back of the menu. I started filming right after the dinner to document the happening and deliberately reconstruct the happened.
Her authentic emotion and action were intimately captured in this melancholy piece, also speaking to larger social issues about arranged marriage and rural education.
​While the rocket launched the same night, she waited for her own miracle to launch in the dreams of youth.

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