Ivan Polunin

Ivan Polunin (1920–2010) was a medical doctor, author, teacher, documentary filmmaker, and photographer. He is best known for his rare colour films,[1] which document cultural traditions and wildlife in Singapore[2] and Malaysia from the 1950s.[3] The films contain important historical and sociological information, and were recently the subject of a local documentaries Lost Images[4][5] and "Invisible City" which showed his well-preserved film archive. His work has been featured in National Geographic magazine; aired on the BBC and stored in the Smithsonian.

Early life and education

Polunin was born to an English mother, Elizabeth Polunin (née Hart) and Russian father Vladimir Polunin[6][7] in 1920, near London. He had two brothers: Nicholas Polunin, who later became an arctic explorer and environmentalist, and Oleg Polunin who was a botanist, author, teacher and traveller. He also had a sister, Tanya Polunin, who owned a music school and taught piano.

Polunin visited his uncle's farm during holidays, where he developed and interest in wild flowers and animals. He later studied classics, natural sciences and medicine.

Career

Polunin's travelled to Singapore in 1948 to complete his National Service in hospitals in Singapore and Malaya.[8] He remained in Asia, and spent most of his working life teaching medical students in Social Medicine & Public Health in Singapore and researching disease patterns in tribal peoples in Malaya.

Polunin bought an 8 mm film camera for personal use in 1951, and filmed Negrito tribespeople living in limestone caves, and the East Coast Malay fishermen who fished from Siglap in big sailing perahus during the Northeast Monsoon.

Polunin began working as a lecturer in 1952 at the University of Malaya, which then became the National University of Singapore. He used the Department's 16 mm camera to film the way of life and environment of Malayan Tribes,[4] and later of the Muruts of North Borneo[9] (Sabah). The Government there had asked him to inquire into the apparent depopulation of the Interior Tribes, and he started the work by doing extensive disease surveys of Longhouse populations. He documented this with a 16mm silent film camera loaded with Kodachrome reversal colour film. For sound he used a Nagra 2C tape recorder. Polunin also contributed a number of articles and book chapters in the field of medical anthropology.[10]

In 1955, Polunin returned to England and showed some of his footage to the BBC which then ran only a single Black and White TV station. They reformatted the 16mm colour film to 35 mm black and white and televised it. From then until 1973 Polunin created a small amount of television footage each year, by shooting silent colour film and then recording a separate narration. The film was edited and assembled at Ealing Studios. The BBC series were Adventure, Travellers Tales, People of Many Lands and World About Us. For Jack Douglas Productions in Hollywood, Polunin shot I Search for Adventure.[11] and Seven League Boots[11]

Polunin authored texts on botany including the Plants & Flowers of Singapore[12] and a counterpart edition on Malaysia. He also contributed to various publications and academic studies including The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings.

Polunin retired as Associate Professor in 1980. He continued to collect Asian ceramics, and made an extensive study of fireflies. He was fondly remembered by friends and colleagues as "the Father of Fireflies".[13] He wrote a book documenting his work, which is as yet unpublished.

Polunin died in 2010. Many of his papers and images have been archived at the Institute of South Asian Studies.[14]

References
  1. "Dr. Ivan Ponunin dies". Straits Times
  2. Audrey Yue; Olivia Khoo (22 January 2014). Sinophone Cinemas. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-1-137-31120-7.
  3. Tilman Baumgärtel (1 January 2012). Southeast Asian Independent Cinema: Essays, Documents, Interviews. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-988-8083-60-2.
  4. Nicole Tarulevicz (26 December 2013). Eating Her Curries and Kway: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore. University of Illinois Press. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-252-09536-8.
  5. Ivan Polunin's Lost Images gets Kudos from Singapore Public | The Moving Visuals Co
  6. Nicholas Polunin (5 November 2013). World Who Is Who and Does What in Environment and Conservation. Routledge. pp. 258–. ISBN 978-1-134-05938-6.
  7. Vladimir Polunin Biography, Works of Art, Auction Results | Invaluable
  8. David C. L. Lim; Hiroyuki Yamamoto (12 March 2012). Film in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Cultural Interpretation and Social Intervention. Routledge. pp. 216–. ISBN 978-1-136-59246-1.
  9. Alan Lomax (1968). Folk Song Style and Culture. Transaction Publishers. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-1-4128-2368-5.
  10. K. Codell Carter (14 August 2012). The Decline of Therapeutic Bloodletting and the Collapse of Traditional Medicine. Transaction Publishers. pp. 36–. ISBN 978-1-4128-4629-5.
  11. "CTVA US Jack Douglas Documentaries – "I Search For Adventure /"Bold Journey"/ "Seven League Boots" (1954–59)". Ctva.biz. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  12. Polunin, Ivan (1987). Plants and flowers of Singapore. ISBN 9789971401146.
  13. "Dr Ivan Polunin – The Unknown Asian Ethnomusicologist". Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  14. Collection of Dr. Ivan Polunin. Archived 18 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Institute of South Asian Studies.
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