A single mother has to deal with the situation, in which her son was raped by the son of her boss.

 

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Official Selection -

NewFilmmakers LA - June 2020

Be Epic London International Film Festival - August 2020

Asian Film Festival Los Angeles - November 2020

Visioni Corte International Film Festival - December 2020

DC Chinese Film Festival - December 2020

JellyFest Film Festival - February 2021

FLICKFAIR - August 2021

North America International UniFilm Festival - September 2021

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Winner -

Best Actress, 2nd Place Best Short Film, Audience Award - The Monthly Film Festival - June 2020

Award of Merit Special Mention - Accolade Global Film Competition - June 2020

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Nominee - 

Best Short Drama - Best of NFMLA Awards - May 2021

Best Performance Drama - Best of NFMLA Awards - May 2021

Best Actress - Asian Film Festival Los Angeles - November 2020

Best Director - The Monthly Film Festival - June 2020

Social Change Jury Prize - USC First Look - May 2020

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This is a story about helplessness.

 

We're living in a world full of conflicts. Everyday, everywhere, people stand against all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. Those exciting and satisfying success stories we see and hear are just a tiny portion of them, while in most cases, what we are against are too gigantic, too powerful and too firm for us to turn over. This story starts with an incident of sexual assault, but it definitely is not limited to it. What does this single incident reveal, of the cultural and social norms, ideologies, and unspeakable relations, that cultivate and even indulge incidents like this to happen, are quintessential to understand such problems.

 

I started writing the script in the summer of 2017. Back then, it was title "Surrounded", a story about a rape victim, surrounded by lies, betrayals, and collective violence, who has to fight all alone against all of them, but was unable to change the reality. A year has passed, the script has been revised almost 20 drafts, and more and more cases like this have been exposed to the public around the world, from Hollywood in the US, to universities in China. When we see more and more people who had chosen to remain silent stood up, I think it is more important to know what kept them silent. Thus, we would know what are the actual things that we need to take down.

 

Just like the title indicates, the “sun” and the “heat” that it generates are the key elements and metaphors in this short film. If we could understand how does the “sun” generate “heat”, how does the “heat” affect every single person, and how do people get “sunburnt” in every level of the lives of ours and others, I hope we could no longer be afraid of the “sun,” and know how not to get “burnt.”

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starring / GRACE CHANG, NIC TOM
also starring / JENNIFER WANG, KATHY KHANH NGUYEN, MICHAEL CHO

written & directed / ZICHENG LI
producer / CINDY WU
associate producer / IVY XIAO
director of photography / HUAZHANG DAI
production designer / JOLENE ZHAO
editor / MOZHU YAN
sound recordist / JOHN ZHAO
sound designer & mixer / JINGJUE ZHOU
music / HUAZHANG DAI

1st assistant director / RAE CHEN
script supervisor / MOZHU YAN
production assistant / JOHN BATINOVICH
still photography / BEIDI WANG
crowdfunding video / MANDY TAO
1st assistant camera / TIANYI LU, HUANXI LI
2nd assistant camera / YUAN WANG
gaffers / BECKY BAIHUI CHEN, WENTING DENG, YINING BEI, HARK XU
grips / COLIN REN, RICK RAMIREZ, YINING BEI, JERRY WANG, GABRIEL LEE
dit / SHARON CAI
art director / ZHICHUN HUANG
set dresser / VANON LI
art assistants / YUQIAN CAO, ZIYI JIN, MING ANNE GENG, JIAJIN CHEN
makeup artist / MARIKO MILLER

wardrobe / BEIDI WANG
post production supervisor / SHARON CAI

colorist / HUAZHANG DAI
foley editor / JOHN ZHAO

faculty advisor / MARK HARRIS

© 2019 University of Southern California

 

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