John Polonia: In Memory
By John Oak Dalton • Feb 26th, 2008 • Category: News
Friend and prolific b-movie filmmaker John Polonia passsed away suddenly yesterday of a heart aneurysm. He was 39 and leaves a wife and young son.
John was an incredibly funny person who enjoyed home and family life and could talk movies with a great fervor. He turned this love of movies into a memorable filmmaking career.
John was a good friend to me and a lot of other filmmakers. He was a great lover of cinema and had a vast collection of movies stored on the shelves of his home and in his brain. He had a dream to make movies and lived that dream every single day since his teenage years. I spoke with him a few weeks ago about a new project I would rewrite over one of his scripts and he was as excited about these upcoming prospects as he was about every project.
I think we are too close to the Polonia Brothers’ legacy for it to be properly measured. They first got distribution as teenagers and are noted for having one of the first shot on SVHS features to be accepted at Blockbuster. They produced and directed more than 30 features in 20-some years that were distributed direct to video. They were incredibly prolific and successful together and embraced a large fan base while being courteous to foes. Their role in the rise of VHS rentals, the mom and pop stores, the SOV era, and then the direct-to-video DVD boom, will have to be noted much farther down the timeline to see what they have really meant as people and professionals.
I can say in total honesty I have never met anyone like John. When I first saw “Blood Red Planet” I knew the Brothers were special as very unique filmmakers and I later came to learn they were incredible individuals as well.
You can see John’s imdb profile here. Bill Cunningham reflects here. And you can read responses from the Polonia Brothers’ Fan Club here.
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John Oak Dalton is a Community Television Station Manager by day, and a DIY acolyte by night. In the 80s he made Super-8 movies and his own basement mix tapes. In the 90s he hosted a cable-access show and made his own zines and minicomics. In the 21st Century he began working with grassroots video and microcinema and writing b-movies, and has more than a dozen projects on the shelf, on screen, in development, or in production.
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i was a manager at blockbuster right out of high school when we got “feeders” to tie in with the release of “independence day”. this was my introduction to the work of the polonia brothers. as a kid i gave up on making movies with my VHS camcorder because i had no idea what could really be done with it. later when seeing the polonias’ work i remember wishing i’d known about them back then.
the “splatter beach” dvd has an outstanding mini documentary about john and mark. it’s inspiring and i think every microcinema filmmaker should see it. these guys are the genuine article, and they’ve been doing it since way before it got ‘easy’, if you know what i mean.
john’s passing is unexpected and tragic. my sympathies to his family and friends. i hope mark plans to carry on.
That was a very nice, tribute to a kind, decent fellow John.
Take Care,
Brian
That was a fine sentiment John.
I know of John as family member he is my neice’s husband . he was a very good father never to lose his temper much . I remember when Missy married him I thought i was going to cry thinking of all the years I watched my neice grow into a beautiful woman ,,but then Missy and John started swinging there hands back and forth into there own nervousness it was so cute that all the people present laughed with them even the pastor I have never saw a wedding so cute and probably never agian . I know John was always ready to care for Nicky and he was helping MIssy with the house ,Just all around great guy may god bless him and keep his family strong in the next few monthes as there is a great loss here !!!!