This film camera belonged to Singaporean Willie Phua (b. 1928- ), who has captured momentous events in Asia during his three-decade long career as a news cameraman for Radio Television Singapore and later Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Among the memorable footages he captured were those of the Bukit Ho Swee fire disaster, the violent race riots in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the Vietnam War and the Tiananmen protests of 1989 (Phua was recognised as one of the few cameramen who captured the footage of the lone protestor briefly held back a tank in Tiananmen Square). The Filmo 70DA seen here is a single lens camera that was first developed in 1923 for capturing black and white footages. Since the advent of television news coverage, the reliable Filmo remained in use even after stations adopted more sophisticated magnetic sound-on-film cameras like the Auricon, and some of the most dramatic close combat footage from the Vietnam War was shot using Filmos.
