A photojournalist-turned vegetable salesman has completed a film on the nation’s precious firefly species that was financed partly out of his own pocket to help enhance the public’s environmental awareness.
“Life is full of possibilities. Even though I make a living selling vegetables, it is not my dream job. I find wildlife extremely interesting, which has helped enrich my life,” Chang Po-chun (張博均) said.
The 38-year-old vegetable wholesaler usually starts his workday shortly after midnight. Despite slim profits, he has managed to save NT$1.1 million (US$34,260) over the past few years to finance his film production. During the two-and-a-half years he spent shooting the movie, the Forestry Bureau also offered NT$900,000 in subsidies to help cover the cost.
“Although producing a documentary is expensive, it is an interesting pursuit beyond any material value,” said Chang, who was once an environmental photojournalist with Taiwan Television Enterprise before being laid off because of budget cuts in his department.
A graduate of National Taiwan Ocean University’s Department of Aquaculture, Chang said he has been fascinated by fireflies since his childhood.
“That’s why I was determined to produce a film that showcases aspects of the light-emitting insect in its most beautiful shape,” Chang said.
The film, shot in terraced fields in Taipei County’s coastal Shihmen Township (石門), vividly depicts the interaction between a farm’s elderly owner and a wide variety of aquatic flora and fauna commonly seen in the wet terraced fields.
Noting that producing a documentary consumes both substantial amounts of time and energy, Chang said his life for more than two years has consisted of selling vegetables in the early hours of the morning and shooting the documentary in the terraced fields during the day.
The result, he said, is a film that deliberately differentiates from traditional environmental documentary films, which he believes tend to be too serious or boring.
“I want to impress and move my audiences with fascinating images and appealing music so that they will be drawn into the world of insects and eventually come to love their living environment and take action to protect the natural ecology,” Chang said.
The filmmaker indicated that he would continue to sell vegetables and save money to produce more documentaries on wildlife as a way to protect and conserve their natural habitats.
Moved by Chang’s devotion to ecological conservation, several prominent artists and filming professionals have volunteered to help, including doing voiceovers in Taiwanese, Mandarin and English.
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