Bitter Roots: The Ends of a Kalahari Myth
Bitter Roots: The Ends of a Kalahari Myth is set in Nyae-Nyae, a region of Namibia located in southern Africa's Kalahari desert, traditional home of the Ju/'hoansi. It updates the ethnographic film record begun in the 1950s by John Marshall, whose f...
A Kalahari Family - Part Three: Real Water
Ju/'hoan farming communities multiply during the 1980s only to face a new threat. The Department of Nature Conservation wants to create a game reserve on Ju/'hoan territory. People will be forbidden to raise livestock or crops. Instead, Ju/'hoansi w...
A Kalahari Family - Part Two: End of the Road
John Marshall is reunited with Toma's family in 1978. Like a majority of Ju/'hoansi, they have settled at Tjum!kui, an administrative post run by the South African government. They came looking for water, jobs and an easier life, but found poverty, ...
A Kalahari Family - Part Five: Death By Myth
Namibian independence attracts vast amounts of international aid, but development programs no longer benefit Ju/'hoan farms. We witness the power of the "Bushman myth." This myth - a belief that Ju/'hoansi live uniquely in harmony with nature and ar...