A Kalahari Family: Part I.A Far Country
A Kalahari Family is a five-part, six-hour series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/’hoansi of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. These once independent hunter-gatherers experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and the chaos of war. Then, as hope for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid grows, the Ju/’hoansi fight to establish farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. The series challenges stereotypes of “Primitive Bushmen” with images of the development projects Ju/’hoansi are carrying out themselves. In this year’s festival, we will screen Part one and Part Two of A Kalahari Family.
Directors
John Marshall
John Marshall began his filmmaking career in the Kalahari Desert in 1950. Later, he studied anthropology at Yale and Harvard Universities. To date, Marshall has produced 26 films from the vast amount of footage he has collected over the years. He has worked to document the life of the Ju/'hoansi of southern Africa and to promote grassroots development projects that support agriculture and recognition of Ju/'hoan and rights.