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z.B. N!ai ]

z.B. N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman

Jhala	Heider
John Marshall, filmmaker	Filmmaker: John Marshall
Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources
Format: 16 mm film, video, color, 59 minutes, 1980
Genre: classic ethnographic film
Key Words:	Southern Africa ! Kung, Ju/Ehoansi, Hunting and Gathering, Gender, Life History
Summary:
This film provides a broad overview of! Kung life, both past and present, and an intimate portrait of N!ai, a !Kung woman who in 1978 was in her mid-thirties. N!ai tells her own story and, in so doing, the story of changes in !Kung 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 seasen changed; the division of giraffe meat; the kinds of rain; her resistance to her marriage to /Guanda 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 1950s 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 !Kung society over thirty years, it never loses sight of the individual, N!ai.	This Film is about one woman called N!ai, and how she has survived change. It is a powerful statement about both gender and sexuality. She is a member of the !Kung San tribe described in Chapter 5. Whereas Bitter Melons (Chapter 5) looked at the closely related group, the !TwiSan, as we said then, we can think of the two peoples as slight variations on the common San theme. However, there is a key difference between the two films: Whereas Bitter Melons presented the timeless ethnographic present, N!ai shows change. The filmmaker is again John Marshall, and he uses footage that he shot of N!ai and her people beginning in 1951 and continuing for twenty-seven years. As N!ai tells her story, the film moves back and forth in time, from the early 1950s, when “our hearts were free” to the late 1970s, when the South African government was recruiting San to fight against the SWAPO guerrilla forces in Namibia. The film evokes Margery Shostak’s book about another !Kung San woman, Nisa (1981). Both film and book address the question “What is it like to be a woman in San culture?” And both N!ai in the film and Nisa in the book tell us quite frankly about their own sexuality. There is a fascinating sequence in N!ai in which John Marshall films a commercial film crew shooting a feature film near N!ai’s settlement. That film turned out to be TheGods Must Be Crazy, which became a great international hit and was the topgrossing foreign film in the U.S. market. Many anthropologists who know the San have criticized it for its simplistic view of San life.
Reasons for its Usefulness	Setup Questions
Few ethnographic films have concentrated on an individual. This film is unique in that it concentrates on a middle aged woman but, by so doing, reveals a great deal about the culture of which she is a part. It is a frank and honest portrait of N!ai by a man that knew her well. We learn from her much about the ethnographic gaze as well, as she challenges the camera (and by extension the viewer) not to look at her. She wants to tell her story, yet is also resistant.	The short clip is a flashback using earlier footage that John Marshall shoot of N!ai. It tells of her girlhood and the early days of her marriage. As you watch the short clip , you can begin to answer the first two questions. After the entire film, move on to the rest. (First, work through the general questions on ethnographic films in Figure I.I.)
Questions Before Screening:	Short Clip Questions
What are some of the ways in which life history can reveal things about culture that a synchronic ethnography cannot? How do the roles that an individual has in a community differ at the various stages of a life.	What is N!ai’s view of the past (her ethnographic present)? Do you think that she is exaggerating or romanticizing? What does N!ai tell us about her marriage?
Questions After Screening:	Entire Film Questions
What are some of the ways in which traditional cultures have adapted to changing circumstances in their relationship with other cultures. What does this film suggest to us about audience and the ethnographic gaze?	What is the role of sexuality in N!ai’s life story? What can you say about San sexuality on the basis of the film? How has the !Kung economic system changed? What has happened to gifts and sharing? Why is there a tuberculosis epidemic? How did N!ai become reconciled to her husband? The South African officials say that the !Kung are lazy and won’t work. How do you interpret that? What is the effect of introducing horses to the San? How does the fiction film crew construct their representation of the San? How do the other try to change N!ai’s behavior? What specific accusations do they make against her? Why?
Films Related by Geographical or Subject Area: The Hunters; The Meat Fight; A Joking Relationship; Bitter Melons; N/um. Tchai; An Argument about a Marriage; Pull Ourselves Up or Die Out, all by John Marshall. Awards: Grand Prize, Cinema du Reel (Paris); Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival; CINE Golden Eagle Award; Gold Medal for Best Television Documentary, International Film and Television Festival of New York; Grand Price, International News Coverage Festival (Luchon, France); Film Commendation from Anthropological Institute (London) Reviews: American Anthropologist, Volume 83, Number 3, Sept. 1981, pg. 740-741, by Robert Gordon; Journal of American Folklore, Volume 97, Number 383, 1984, pg. 106-108, by Keith Cummingham; Choice, July/Aug. 1982, pg. 44-47, by Paul Brubaker; Guide to N!ai, reviewed American Anthropologist, Volume 88, June 1986, pg. 516-517, by Megan Biesele. Associated Reading: The Cinema of John Marshall, edited by Jay Ruby, Philadelphia: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993; The Harmless People, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.