Director paid with his life for love of Taiwan’s beauty
Chi Po-lin was working on a new celebration of the island’s environment when his helicopter crashed, killing the 52-year-old and two others
Taiwan’s acclaimed documentary director Chi Po-lin was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday, leaving a legacy of a love of the land and of promoting environmental protection.
Chi was shooting a sequel to his award-winning documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above, when the tragedy took place, which also killed his assistant and the pilot. Chi was 52.
He had been anxious before about flying. Recalling his first helicopter filming excursion for Public Television in Taiwan, he had said: “A week before boarding the helicopter, I was distraught and could not fall asleep at night.
“I was nervous back then,” he recalled. “However, once on board I was very much alive again. Having acrophobia, when I am on top of a building and looking down I get kind of scared. But I don’t feel the same way on the helicopter anymore.”
Saturday’s crash came just two days after Chi said he would raise NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) to film part two of Beyond Beauty. Its launch in 2013 instantly captured the hearts of Taiwanese.