John Marshall !Kung Films Collection

Access required

This collection is not included in your subscription

Preview the collection, request purchase or access it through your institution.

Over the course of his career, filmmaker John Marshall shot more than one million feet of film and video (722 hours) of the Ju/'hoansi (!Kung Bushmen) of Namibia's Kalahari Desert. This body of work is unrivalled as a long-term visual study of a single group of people. Contained in Marshall's footage are the personal histories of individuals, documents of a now non-existent way of life, and the unfolding of massive social and economic change as experienced by one group of people over a period of fifty years.

A frequent innovator in the field of ethnographic film, Marshall produced twenty-three films and videos and one multi-part series from his extensive footage archive. Marshall's approach to filmmaking evolved alongside changes in film and video technology, in the fields of anthropology and ethnographic and documentary film, and on a very personal level, in Marshall's relationship to the Ju/'hoansi. These shifts can be seen throughout the course of his career, as he moved from the almost scientific, observational style of First Film (his earliest footage), to the nuanced and self-reflexive epic, A Kalahari Family.

Films in the !Kung series

An Argument about Marriage

Baobab Play

Bitter Melons

Children Throw Toy Assegais

A Joking Relationship

A Kalahari Family

!Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment

The !Kung San: Traditional Life

The !Kung San: Resettlement

Lion Game

The Meat Fight

Men Bathing

N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman

N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game

N/um Tchai: the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen

Playing with Scorpions

Pull Ourselves Up or Die Out

A Rite of Passage

To Hold Our Own Ground: A Field Report

Tug-Of-War (Bushmen)

The Wasp Nest

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 Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work.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.