Week2 - Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above

2015.02.24

Chi Polin (齊柏林), the award-winning director of the extremely well-received documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above (2013), thinks that instead of acquiring investors to produce documentary films, this type of film production should be made possible by donations.

Chi Polin directed the internationally famed documentary, Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above (看見台灣). Beyond Beauty showcases Taiwan using only aerial photography for the entire length of the film. The film opened in theaters on November 1, 2013 and broke Taiwan’s box office records for the largest opening weekend and the highest total gross of a locally produced documentary. The box office racked up one hundred and ninety million NT (gross revenue) through the year of 2014. Chi Polin remained humble and stated that he had learned a lot in the past year, “I took this film with me all over the world, and I discovered that there isn’t a language barrier, because this is a common topic for all of us.”

On the dwindling situation of the documentary industry in Taiwan, Chi Polin expressed, “CCTV (China Central Television) used to only have one channel for documentaries. Now they have two channels. In comparison, only PTS (Public Television Service) has similar shows in Taiwan, but that is too few.” He pointed out that nowadays, foreign countries go overseas to look for material and funding, just so they could produce great stories. “For example BBC’s (British Broadcasting Corporation) documentary Hidden Kingdoms, I thought it was 3-D animation at first. I realized Taiwan’s production teams have a lot of room for improvement. BBC was able to make this kind of scientific film so full of drama, it’s very interesting.”

Furthermore, Chi Polin stated that the way to acquire funding for documentary films shouldn’t be through obtaining investors but rather should be done through donations, “Because no one can guarantee any documentary will be profitable, it’s even hard for movies to be profitable, let alone documentaries.” He hoped that the quality corporations in Taiwan can give some level of attention to this lesser known market.

Taiwan’s Elta TV will partner with BBC starting 2015. Their partnership includes channel authorization and promotions of on-demand programs. This has been the most comprehensive collaboration ever since BBC’s entrance into the Taiwanese market.

源自於：http://www.taipeimain.com/chi-polin-thinks-taiwan-can-increase-the-production-of-documentary-films/

Structure of the Lead
Who- Chi Polin
When- 2013
What- Chi Polin directed “Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above”
Why- the dwindling situation of the documentary industry in Taiwan
Where- Taiwan
How- using only aerial photography

Keywords
1. aerial (a.)空中的
2. dwindling (a.)縮小的
3. corporation (n.)公司
4. authorization (n.)授權
5. collaboration (n.)合作