Rock Me to the Moon

Outside the Box [Office] and the USC East Asian Studies Center (EASC) invite you and a guest to a special screening of Rock Me to the Moon.

Directed by Huang Chia-Chun

Produced by Lin Yu Xian

Followed by a Q&A with Huang Chia-Chun

Moderated by Stanley Rosen, Professor of Political Science, USC

Translation by Katherine Chu, MA EAAS and PhD POIR, USC

Presented as part of an all-day EASC Taiwanese Documentary Series on Oct. 28th.

Learn more about the Series at: http://dornsife.usc.edu/eascenter/easc-taiwanese-doc-series/

To RSVP, CLICK HERE

About Rock Me to the Moon

This documentary won the Audience Choice Award at the 2013 Taipei Film Festival and Best Original Film Song at the Golden Horse Awards the same year. The film features the band members who call themselves “Sleepy Dads” because their children’s ailments require round-the-clock care. The illnesses place an incalculable strain on the bandmates’ family lives. When the documentary returns to the band room after these difficult domestic scenes, the fathers’ rock-god quest is reframed as something humbler. What the men appreciate most about the band, they say, is simply that it gives them a few relaxing hours out of the house.

Rock Me to the Moon, it turns out, is ultimately a story of everyday courage: not the courage it takes to play a rock show in middle age, but the courage to come home after the gig. When Mr. Huang first began spending time at Taiwan’s support group for children with rare diseases, he noticed that mothers far outnumbered fathers. “In traditional Taiwanese society, men only want to show the good side of themselves,” Mr. Huang said in discussing this film. “So in very difficult situations, they cannot take the pressure and all they can do is run away.” Mr. Huang’s film is an ode to the fathers who stayed, and the director hopes it will inspire his compatriots to discover their own courage within.

Provided courtesy of O-Turn Films. Not Rated. Running time: 118 minutes. In Mandarin, with English subtitles.

Visit the Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RockMeToTheMoon

About the Guest

HUANG CHIA-CHUN (Director)

Huang Chia-chun was born in 1974, graduated from the Department of Radio, Television and Film, Shih Hsin University and Graduate School of Applied Media Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts. He directed commercials during his college years, but has devoted his career to making documentaries after his discharge from military service. Apart from filmmaking, the director also has an interest in script-writing, TV production, photography and art creation. His works mostly focus on social and human issues for which he has won numerous awards. In 2008, Huang Chia-chun won Best Director for TV show Have Fun With Art produced for PTS; in the same year, his feature-length documentary They Are Flying won the Best Documentary Award at the Taipei Film Festival and the Audience Choice Award at the Taiwan International Screening Documentary Festival, and his short documentary “The Way I Miss You” was nominated Best Documentary at the Golden Harvest Awards. His most recent production Rock Me to the Moon won the 2013 Taipei Film Festival Audience Choice Award and the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song.

For more on Director Huang Chia-chun: Taipei Film Commission or Facebook

About the Moderator

STANLEY ROSEN

Professor Stanley Rosen is a professor of political science at USC specializing in Chinese politics and society. He is also the Faculty Master of University Residential College at Birnkrant, which is an honors college for USC’s best incoming students. Rosen has been living on campus for 26 years as a resident faculty member. He studied Chinese in Taiwan and Hong Kong and has traveled to mainland China over 50 times in the last 34 years. His courses range from Chinese politics and Chinese film to political change in Asia, East Asian societies, comparative politics, and politics and film in comparative perspective. The author or editor of eight books and many articles, he has written on such topics as the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese legal system, public opinion, youth, gender, human rights, Sino-American relations, and film and the media. He is the co-editor of Chinese Education and Society and a frequent guest editor of other translation journals. His most recent books include Chinese Politics: State, Society and the Market [2010] (co-edited with Peter Hays Gries) and Art, Politics and Commerce in Chinese Cinema [2010] (co-edited with Ying Zhu).

Ongoing projects include a study of the changing attitudes and behavior of Chinese youth, and a study of Hollywood films in China and the prospects for Chinese films on the international market, particularly in the United States. In addition to his academic activities at USC, Professor Rosen has escorted twelve delegations to China for the National Committee on US-China Relations (including American university presidents, professional associations, and Fulbright groups). He is an affiliated research scholar at Beijing Normal University’s Research Institute for Chinese Culture and International Communications and a member of the international advisory board of Shanghai University’s Center for Media Studies and the Humanities Studies Center of Zhongshan University (Taiwan). He has consulted for the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, the United States Information Agency, the Los Angeles Public Defenders Office and a number of private corporations, law firms and U.S. government agencies.

About the EASC Taiwanese Documentary Series

The EASC Taiwanese Documentary Film Series is made possible by the Spotlight Taiwan grant from the Taiwan Academy of the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China, with additional support provided by Special Patron Dr. Samuel Yin and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Learn about the Series at: http://dornsife.usc.edu/eascenter/easc-taiwanese-doc-series/

About the USC East Asian Studies Center (EASC)

In 1975, the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences established the East Asian Studies Center (EASC) in order to provide dedicated leadership, coordination and support for the growing interdisciplinary education, research activity, and community outreach concerning East Asia. In addition to being an academic department, EASC has been recognized as one of the nation's leading centers for the development of East Asian area studies and is among a small group of elite colleges and universities to be designated a National Resource Center for East Asian studies by the U.S. Department of Education. Today, over 80 USC faculty are affiliated with EASC.

Learn more about EASC at: http://dornsife.usc.edu/eascenter/

About Outside the Box [Office]

Outside the Box [Office] is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

Check-In & Reservations

This screening is free of charge and open to the public. Please bring a valid USC ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Doors will open at 6:30 P.M.

All SCA screenings are OVERBOOKED to ensure seating capacity in the theater, therefore seating is not guaranteed based on RSVPs. The RSVP list will be checked in on a first-come, first-served basis until the theater is full. Once the theater has reached capacity, we will no longer be able to admit guests, regardless of RSVP status.

Parking

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 900 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $10.00 at USC Entrance Gate #4, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & Royal Street. We recommend Parking Structure D, at the far end of 34th Street. Metered street parking is also available along Jefferson Blvd.

Rock Me to the Moon Official Trailer