Films with: Ritchie, Claire

Bitter roots the ends of a Kalahari myth /

Bitter roots 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 films documented 50 years of change, and who together with Claire Ritchie, established a grass-roots development foundation, which Adrian Strong (the filmmaker) joined in the late 1980s. Shot in 2007, two years after Marshall's death (and including footage from his films), Bitter Roots documents the return of Strong and Ritchie to Nyae-Nyae where they observe the erosion of a community-led development process following the imposition of a new agenda led by the World Wildlife Fund, which prioritizes wildlife conservation and tourism over subsistence farming. Communities voice their dissatisfaction with the new Conservancy, which has done little to help people farm and improve their lives.

DVD 11714

Kalahari family

In 1951, Laurence and Lorna Marshall and their two children, Elizabeth and John, set out to find the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Their aim was to study and document their life and culture. While in Nyae Nyae the Marshall family documented everyday life as well as unusual events and activities, producing a massive body of work that continues to define the fields of anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking today. Encapsulating 50 years of Namibian history, A Kalahari Family represents a lifetime of documentation, research, and personal contact by filmmaker John Marshall.

DVD 2861