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N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman

N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman MAIN

N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman

Price: $320.00
Filmmaker Name: John Marshall, Adrienne Miesmer
Film Length: 59 min
Film Year: 1980
Duration: 46-75 min
Decade: 1980s
Series: !Kung series
Subtitle Language: English subtitles
Color: color
Closed-captioned: closed-captioned
Region: Africa
Subject: Indigenous Peoples
Sharing Discount has been applied

ABOUT

Digitally Remastered DVD Edition 

This film provides a broad overview of Ju/'hoan life, both past and present, and an intimate portrait of N!ai, a Ju/'hoan woman who in 1978 was in her mid-thirties. N!ai tells her own story, and in so doing, the story of Ju/'hoan life over a thirty year period. 

"Before the white people came we did what we wanted," N!ai recalls, describing the life she remembers as a child: following her mother to pick berries, roots, and nuts as the season changed; the division of giraffe meat; the kinds of rain; her resistance to her marriage to /Gunda at the age of eight; and her changing feelings about her husband when he becomes a healer. 

As N!ai speaks, the film presents scenes from the 1950's that show her as a young girl and a young wife. The uniqueness of N!ai may lie in its tight integration of ethnography and history. While it portrays the changes in Ju/'hoan society over thirty years, it never loses sight of the individual, N!ai.

Part of the !Kung Series.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Cine Golden Eagle Award
Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival
Grand Prize, Cinéma du Réel, Paris
Gold Medal, International Film and Television Festival of New York 
Grand Prize, News Coverage Festival, Luchon, France


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 Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work.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

CREDITS & INFO

N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman

Produced by
John Marshall and Sue Marshall-Cabezas

Executive Producer for Odyssey
Michael Ambrosino

Directed and Edited by
Adrienne Miesmer and John Marshall

With
N!ai Short Face, /Gunda, Gao Lame, /Wi Crooked, ≠Toma Word, !U, Tsamko

English Voice of N!ai
Letta Mbulu

Field Anthropologist
Patricia Draper

N!ai interviews based on fieldwork of Marjorie Shostak

Consulting Anthropologists and Translators
Marjorie Shostak, Patricia Draper, Megan Biesele, Lorna Marshall
 
Camera
John Marshall, Ross McElwee, Mark Erder

Sound
Anne Fischel, Adrienne Miesmer, Stan Leven

Assistant Camera
Stan Leven

Assistant Sound
Patricia Draper

Assistant Editor
Carol Towson

Production Assistants
Michel Negroponte, Anne Fischel, Ross McElwee, Stan Leven, Bonnie Deutsch, Barry Dornfeld, Sarah Goodman, Jonathan Haar, Martha Lightfoot 

N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman was made possible in part by a grant from The Rock Foundation.


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