This early classic in anthropological film follows the hunt of a giraffe by four men over a five-day period. The film was shot in 1952-53 on the third joint Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody sponsored Marshall family expedition to Africa to study Ju/'hoansi, one of the few surviving groups that lived by hunting - gathering.
John Marshall was a young man when he made this, his first feature length film. He was a natural cameraman who found a subject that would dominate the rest of his life. He has since shot over 600,000 feet of film from which 24 films were edited. The value of the footage as an encyclopedia of !Kung life is unequaled by any other body of ethnographic film.
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Official Selection, National Film Registry, 2003
Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1959
Grand Prize, Florence Film Festival
Robert Flaherty Award
Orthography NoteThe 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 Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work.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.