The John Marshall !Kung Films Collection comprises Marshall's long-term documentation of the Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari Desert in northeastern Namibia, spanning over fifty years, from 1951 to 2001. For its sustained documentation of a single cultural group across five decades, it is considered one of the seminal visual anthropology projects of the twentieth century.
Much of the collection’s film and video footage centers on one particular extended family: that of Toma Tsamko, whose ancestral home is at /Gautcha, an area with a large salt pan and a permanent waterhole. The footage captures the life stories of several family members, who appear as children in the 1950s, middle-aged parents in the 1980s, and elders in the final years of documentation. The Marshall Collection also documents other Ju/'hoansi living in Nyae Nyae and elsewhere, their relationships with neighboring ethnic groups, and the national politics affecting Ju/'hoansi. In addition, Marshall documented the local political body, the Nyae Nyae Farmers' Cooperative (NNFC), and the foundation he established, the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN), along with the ways both organizations worked with, and were affected by, international development organizations and foreign aid during the 1990s.
In 2009, in recognition of its significant cultural and artistic value, the collection was among the earliest film projects inducted into UNESCO’s Memory of the World.
Marshall’s original film materials, outtakes and film masters, are preserved by the Smithsonian’s Human Studies Film Archive. DER, in collaboration with partners at the Smithsonian and funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, is actively engaged in developing new preservation materials and remastering the films.
Scope and Contents
The collection comprises a total of thirty titles, including:
A Kalahari Family (2002), a five-part, six-hour series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/'hoansi of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000, and charting John’s evolution from filmmaker to activist.
16 sequence films that each focus on a single event, providing a brief introduction followed by an uninterrupted sequence. These films were intended as educational films, meant to be viewed multiple times and with the aid of a study guide. Shot between 1950 and 1958, during four expeditions John Marshall made to the Ju/'hoansi where he spent the greatest amount of time with the people of /Gautcha, including ≠Oma, !U, Tsamko, N!ai, and /Gunda.
The four Compilation and Activist films include two narrated films edited from Marshall’s footage for use in elementary school classrooms, and two films produced to update philanthropic and other audiences about the community’s economic and development status.
The two Films by Lorna Marshall are narrated works that use footage from 1951-1952 expeditions.
Films in the !Kung Collection:
Feature Films
The Hunters (1957, 72 min)
Bitter Melons (1971, 30 min)
N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980, 57 min)
A Kalahari Family Series
Part One: A Far Country (2002, 90 min)
Part Two: End Of the Road (2002, 60 min)
Part Three: Real Water (2002, 60 min)
Part Four: Standing Tall (2002, 60 min)
Part Five: Death By Myth (2002, 90 min)
Sequence Films
An Argument about Marriage (1969, 18 min)
Baobab Play (1974, 8 min)
Children Throw Toy Assegais (1972, 4 min)
A Curing Ceremony (1969, 9 min)
Debe's Tantrum (1972, 9 min)
A Group of Women (1961, 6 min)
A Joking Relationship (1962, 13 min)
Lion Game (1970, 5 min)
The Meat Fight (1974, 14min)
Men Bathing (1973, 14 min)
N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game (1970, 15 min)
N/um Tchai: the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (1969, 20 min)
Playing with Scorpions (1072, 5 min)
A Rite of Passage (1972, 14 min)
Tug-Of-War (Bushmen) (1974, 6min)
The Wasp Nest (1972, 20 min)
Compilation and Activist Films
The !Kung San: Traditional Life (1987, 26 min)
The !Kung San: Resettlement (1988, 28 min)
To Hold Our Own Ground: A Field Report (1991, 33 min)
Pull Ourselves Up or Die Out (1995, 26 min)
Films by Lorna Marshall
First Film (1951, 60 min)
!Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment (1972, 37 min)
Orthography Note
The group of people depicted in these films are the Ju/'hoansi, speakers of the Ju/'hoan language. Ju/'hoan is part of the !Kung language group; the term !Kung was previously used by the Marshall family and others to refer to Ju/'hoansi. Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work. The films and their related printed materials also employ antiquated spellings of names and places. For current Ju/'hoan orthography, please see the Ju/'hoan - English Dictionary, compiled by Patrick Dickens and the Ju/'hoan Peoples Literacy Committee.
