Synopsis

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.

Curator’s Note

When a Rocket Sits on the Launch Pad focuses on the future of young sports students in the form of documentary film. In the film, the teenagers train in a sports school. Although they have different dreams and interests, they find their own goals here. Fang is an excellent female team member, she understand own heart slowly in the conversation with her coach. The visual effects of the short film drive the story with the plain environment and the simple teenagers, and the real feelings of the characters are amplified through the language of the camera. Fang’s phone dropped into water that is a detail drives the inner emotions and behavior of the characters. In the end, the launch of rockets represents the future of these teenagers. (Yuepeng Gong)

Director’s bio

Born in Sichuan, China in 1992, Bohao Liu studied filmmaking and screenwriting at New York University and the London Film School.

His graduation film, the short documentary Eagles Rest in Liangshan, won a Student Academy Award in 2021. He is currently working on a PhD in film studies in Paris. His second short film, When a Rocket Sits on the Launch Pad, is selected at Berlinale Generation 2023.

Director’s Note

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.

Festival & Awards

Casts

Credits

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