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| The Great Dance, a hunter's story | |||||||||
| The Movie- Interesting Screenings | |||||||||
Order the Video |
Being San |
Bushmen's Reaction |
Interesting Screenings |
A multi sensory experience |
Synopsis |
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BUSHMAN SELF ESTEEM COURSE, Upington , South AfricaMarch 2001 , the great dance was shown to a group of young bushmen in Upington, South Africa as part of a self esteem and career guidance course. It was received with great excitement and may lead to it being incorporated in some way into a larger school program to build self esteem amongst young San people.
PALIKUR AMAZONIAN INDIANS, Kumene Village, BrazilWhy did we screen The Great Dance in Kumene village, northern Brazil? In part, because Gods Must Be Crazy had been a hit here in 1997 (who knows where the dubbed copy came from) and Great Dance is in some senses a rejoinder. More importantly, our hunch was that hunters here, in the Amazon, would relate to the difficult quest for food when living on the border of a nature reserve. Although the film is in English and Palikur hunters speak some Portuguese and no English, live translation was successful enough to crowd out the house we screened it in, and to hear 'Davi! usuh mwaka hiyap inin "caçadores do Africa"' (David! we want to see the "hunters of Africa") a few times in the next few days. We screened it four times; about a hundred people saw it out of a village of 500. One man asked, "Do people actually live like this today?" The desert was an incredible thing to people who see rain seven to ten times a day during rainy season; the concept of one rainfall a year, or less, is a constant marvel. As were the creatures of the desert: "What large deer they have!" said one man.Others were amazed by the use of beetle larvae for poison; all by the courage of the running hunt. While the shift to black & white had most people a little non-plussed, the re-enacted hunting stories - a familiar genre - all but brought the house down. From several conversations in days that followed, it was clear that people here had been fascinated and encouraged. That ways of living like theirs were being valued by makers of television programmes, and that skills like tracking could be a valuable thing in the world of supermarkets, was provocative in a context in which Indians feel devalued and excluded from state and city. Such a realisation is powerful enough to spark the imagination of a different set of social relationships with a wider world. It was also important, we think, for people to realise that Amazonian Indians are not alone in resisting state systems and bureaucracies. Detailed, close-up images of animals and creatures contributed to several conversations about photographs that could be taken of local animal life by people who know the creatures well. And by implication, people began to understand that television and photography could be a tool that they too could use. The video remains in the village, along with the solar panel and video player; cornerstones of a new video & book library that aims to place value on local knowledge. - David Green and Lesley Fordred
CREE FIRST NATION, Attawapiskat, Ontario, CanadaThe village of Attawapiskat is a Cree First Nation reserve on the western side of James Bay in Canada. The Cree were, until about 40 or 50 years ago, a traditional hunter gatherer band who lived 'off the land'.From my dealings with them I believe that they would be very interested in your film, The Great Dance due to the very close parallels with their own way of life - albeit now practically gone. The village of Attawapiskat is very isolated, the only access for most of the year is by plane. There is a population of about 1500 people and the community has its own TV station for broadcasting to the local community only. John Vasey General Manager- International Projects De Beers De Beers has purchased a video which will be screened to the Cree sometime during this year.
INNU (NASKAPI) HUNTERS, Northern Labrador (Canada)They are arguably among the last hunting groups in North America having only been forced to adopt village life around 1965. Many of the San words about hunting and their spiritual relationship with the prey they seek echo thoughts and sentiments expressed by the old Innu men I am working with. Only in our case it is caribou not kudu that the hunters seek. And the women are no less pleased to have fat and marrow brought home to them, they are however more reserved. I wanted to be able to share the San experiences which include not only the hunt but their increasingly difficult relations with government and land-managing authorities that are problems the Innu face themselves.Stephen Loring Arctic Studies Center NMNH - Anthropology Smithsonian Institution Washington DC 20560-0112 Stephen purchased a video and will be showing it to the Innu (Naskapi) hunters later this year
TSUMKWE SAN COMMUNITY, North East of Namibia"At last the video of the Great Dance was shown in Tsumkwe. It was attended by about 50 Ju/'hoansi San - old and young. It was wonderful to watch the faces and listen to the comments. It was greatly enjoyed by every one although they could not follow the !Xo language of the San of the central Kalahari or even the English, which is strange to most of them. The animals gave much joy to everybody. So the different traditions - the people here cook the blood before eating it, for example. The last hunt absorbed everybody. The old men became young again while watching. The young said that they cannot run like that. The next morning some told us again how much they enjoyed it." Hendrik and Elize GENERAL SAN SCREENINGSThe Great Dance has now been shown to san groups in the southern and central Kalahari(Botswana), in various parts of South Africa and Namibia (Windhoek area and the North West). There have been at least 10 San screenings, with one screening alone attended by 2000 people. See also Bushman's Reactions and Being San for more on the interaction of the San and this movie |
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