Ernest Nukanen; Documentary Filmmaker, Cameraman

Ernest Nukanen, 75, a documentary filmmaker and cameraman whose work took him from the North Pole to the tropical forests of Surinam. Nukanen traveled to the North Pole in 1957 to document a return expedition by Lowell Thomas, Peter Freuchen, Adm. Donald MacMillan and Sir Hubert Wilkins. He traveled to the tropical forests of Surinam to film and co-produce “Journey to Chilane,” a documentary on the life of the Oyanan Indians. As a combat cameraman he covered the U.S. Marine landings in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and the fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia for ABC News. He began teaching at USC in 1979, retiring in 1991. On Feb. 26 in Belfast, Me., after a series of illnesses.