FILM LONDON LODESTARS: Lee Chan Popo
"Lee has faced significant challenges in his personal life that have meant that support to get back into the industry has been greatly received from Film London. Lee has an impressive number of credits behind him, and is working diligently to pursue new avenues as a writer and creative."
Caragh Davison (BFI NETWORK Talent Programme Manager)
Lee Chan Popo is a digital visual effects, post production artist, who has embarked on a journey of repair over the past two decades, following a fatal accident from which he endured a paralysing brain injury. Overcoming a plethora of obstacles surrounding learning styles, and partial acceptance of disabilities, he has created a film cathartically retelling his journey from a devastating accident, through rehabilitation, culminating in mental health repair, entitled Atone. From his initial physical recovery, then relearning how to read and write, he has been searching for an adequate way to relay his lived experience, and has found filmmaking to be an appropriate visual medium.
Lee started off in the industry in the edit suite, learning how to edit a story through the cut, without any knowledge of VFX. However, he has found that due to the pace of industry, people with disabilities especially those with neurodivergent impairments, are not at all catered for.
VFX satisfies Lee’s intrigue for enhancing the normal, like a kind of magic—bringing to life all he imagines, in this digital field. Lee’s recent credits as VFX artist include Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and the upcoming Key & Peele-starring animation Wendell & Wild. Through Film London Equal Access Network’s Return to Work Scheme, Lee worked on Gangs of London after taking paternity leave.
