Red Light Revolution

The USC School of Cinematic Arts presents a screening of "Red Light Revolution," written and directed by Sam Voutas. Followed by a Q&A with Sam Voutas and producer Melanie Ansley

A humorous look at Chinese tradition colliding with modern sexual values, Red Light Revolution is the story of an ordinary Beijinger who opens a sex shop to make ends meet, sparking a sexual revolution in his conservative neighborhood. Shunzi, like many men of his generation, is a hard worker who simply can’t afford to provide the type of life his spouse desires. When he is fired from his cab company, his wife promptly leaves him and throws him out of the house he bought her. With nowhere else to go, Shunzi returns to his parents' traditional courtyard home for solace.

As money pressures rise, Shunzi’s parents urge him to forget about “face” and take any job that will have him. So, unbeknownst to his family, Shunzi decides to step behind China’s new “red curtain” and secretly open an adult shop.

But when the neighborhood watch discovers that Shunzi has been operating without a permit, Shunzi faces the threat of losing everything. Shunzi and his neighbours have a choice: accept defeat, or fight for the shop that has unexpectedly united the community.

Provided courtesy of Scopofile. Not Rated. Running time: 91 minutes. In Mandarin, with English subtitles.

Visit the Official Website: http://www.redlightrevolution.com/

Sam Voutas (Writer/Director/Editor)

Australian-born Sam Voutas was raised in capital cities across Asia and the Pacific - first in Manila,   later in Taipei, then on to Beijing (which he left in '89 and returned to in the '90's).

A graduate of Australia's premiere arts university, the Victorian College of the Arts, Voutas’ two student films both won awards at national film festivals in Australia. He has since worked with many of Asia's brightest and loudest filmmakers: from playing war reporter Durdin in Lu Chuan's "City of Life and Death", to acting for "Shower" and "Wheat" enfant terrible Du Jiayi, to being the director of photography on the recent Singapore cinema-release "Roulette City". Voutas' China documentaries have screened on TV across the region: NHK (Japan), KBS (Korea), PTS (Taiwan), the Documentary Channel (New Zealand), AETN, and on The Australia Network.

Voutas is a nomad child of an Asia that is increasingly working outside of their own borders. RED LIGHT REVOLUTION, which was nominated for Best Unproduced Screenplay at the 2008 Australian Inside Film Awards, is his second feature film.

Melanie Ansley (Producer)

Born in Canada, Melanie spent most of her life growing up in China and attending local Chinese schools—before China’s warp speed entry into modernity.

In 2002 she combined her Asian Studies background with filmmaking by producing the gritty documentary “The Last Breadbox”, her first collaboration with Sam Voutas in China.  She found herself drawn back for her second documentary, “Shanghai Bride”, which won the 2003 Australian International Documentary Conference’s Pitch n’ Punt to garner funding from ABC Australia and CBC Canada.  The film was distributed internationally and debated fiercely in China, from TV stations to local film salons, for its controversial depiction of gender politics.

Since moving back to China, she has directed two feature length horrors, freelanced with networks such as HBO, NBC, the Discovery Channel, and conducted over a dozen workshops on film producing for Chinese media organizations. She enjoys finding overlooked yet humorous Chinese stories that can be told in unexpected and unconventional ways.