Ellis Dungan, WV filmmaker, co-founder of Tamil Film Industry
Ellis Dungan in India
Ellis Dungan was one of the first people in West Virginia to make a living directing documentaries in the film. He did this after living in Paris and co-founding the Tamil film industry in Madras, India. He also worked on several Hollywood films including, “Tarzan Goes to India,” and the TV show, “Andy and His Gang.” In 1958, he returned to WV, living in Wheeling for the rest of his life until he died Dec. 1, 2001. Recently a librarian notified a listserv for video librarians that she was looking for Tamil films that he directed.
The video librarian notified the listserv that Dungan’s last Tamil film, “Manthiri Kumari”(1950) is available for rental at Netflix.
Here is their posted description -
Manthiri Kumari(1950) Parthiban (S.A. Natarajan), the disturbed son of a royal advisor (M.N. Nambiar), dresses up as a demented superhero and commits crimes in an effort to discredit famous general Veeramohan (M.G. Ramachandran), who is romancing the beautiful Princess Jeeva (G. Shakuntala). Taking pity on Parthiban, the prime minister’s daughter (Madhuri Devi) marries him — with disastrous results. Sagunthala co-stars in this offbeat drama from
India. Starring: Madhuri Devi, Sagunthala
Director: T.R. Sundaram
Genre: Foreign
Format: Full Screen …
Language: Tamil
Subtitles: English
I was friends with Ellis almost from when I first came to WV in 1978. I wrote a short biography of him for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia but it was not included in the publication. Bill Drennen, a WV filmmaker, promoter and Commissioner of Culture & History, did write a nice article for the WV Encyclopedia about him.
Goldenseal magazine published an article about Dungan in fall 1996, “Ready, Wheeling and Able -Movie Maker Ellis Dungan” by Barbara Diane Smik. In 2001 Dungan and Smik published his autobiography, “A Guide to Adventure - An Autobiography” published by Dorrance Publishing Co, Pittsburgh.
Dungan writes about making “Manthiri Kumari” and the other Tamil films in his autobiography.
Dungan donated many of his films and other materials to the WV State Archives. Dick Fauss, film archivisit, transferred to VHS films Dungan made in the state between 1960 and 1977.
Here is their published description of the materials -Processed in 2005/06.
Ellis Dungan Collection(Ms2003-181): six boxes ofcorrespondence, speeches, research materials, photographsand other material of a West Virginia filmmaker who specialized inIndia and otherNear and Far Eastern subjects,1919–1998.
Dungan received a lifetime achievement award from the WV Intl Film Festival (1989) and he was very proud of what he had accomplished. Everyone in WV should see his best film about WV, ” Wheeling - Wheels to Progress.”(1959) He also made “For Liberty and Union,”(1977), the official film shown in Wheeling at WV Independence Hall and completed ”Josiah Fox - Architect of the United States First Navy”(1987) a film about one of his ancestors who founded the U.S. Navy, Josiah Fox. It was his last film.
I miss Ellis’ visits. He acted very much like an English gentleman, both in his speech and how he looked. He was a hard worker, and helped train many local filmmakers. Hopefully more of his Tamil films will be released on DVD some day.
November 6th, 2008 at
Co-founder / Schmo-founder. When will white people learn to curb their cultural imperialism. Dungan din’t arrive in India until ‘35, by which time Tamil film-making was into its second decade. Shame on you!