"through their eyes and in their words" In 1996, James Hersov began researching the topic of Tracking and the San, convinced that, whilst so much in documentary film appeared to have already been done on the San, there was still room to do something rather different and take the subject matter much further. In 1997, he approached his friend Craig Foster, who immediately saw the potential in the proposal for a much deeper and more intimate film and together they began developing ideas and concepts. Craig's artistic and poetic orientation and quite unique filmic eye, brought an unusual orientation to the project from the very start. Appreciating the necessity for an international perspective on the project, James invited Ellen Windemuth, experienced in distribution and co-production based in Holland, to join the team. Damon, Craig's brother recently returned to South Africa, was the natural fourth member, bringing particularly his editing skills but also his wealth of experience as a cameraman and director. James raised the initial seed finance from the KirchMedia group in Germany. Jan Mojto and Patrick Hoerl from Kirch proved to be stalwart supporters of the project right through the lengthy process or production and were always there to provide encouragement and critical input. With them on board, he and Ellen raised the balance of the money both in South Africa and internationally. The most significant feature of the making of this film, was that it was a totally collaborative team effort. Each member had a set of clearly defined responsibilities and with their different experience and skills bases each added unique value. Moreover, there was also tremendous overlap. Having very quickly developed a shared vision, a close working relationship between the team members unfolded. Differences in perspective became constructive challenges rather than negative disputes. Quite early on, the team began discussing the possibility of showing the film cinematically. In the light of an entrenched reluctance by theatrical distributors in general worldwide to show non-fiction, Ster Kinekor was able to commit to screening the film through their niche Cinema Nouveau cinema chain in South Africa. On the back of this commitment, the team decided to go ahead and make the investment in the lengthening to 75 minutes and blow up to 35mm, the format required for cinematic release. This will be the first time that a South African non-fiction film will be shown on the big screen. A theatrical screening will also take place in New York later in the year at about the same time as the South African Premier on October 20th 2000. Craig and Damon filmed on and off in the Kalahari over a year, a lot of that actually in the central Kalahari. James joined them in the field for a part of that time. Craig returned to the Kalahari with a rough assembly of the footage six months after filming there and showed the footage to the hunters and their families. Their response was extraordinary in its enthusiasm and Craig was able to get their appraisal of the sequences and much more detailed information in their own words as to what exactly was going on. This proved to be a critical element of creating the film as an intimate experience "through their eyes and in their words".

Vision and Style

 

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