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| The Great Dance, a hunter's story | |||||||||
| The Movie- synopsis | |||||||||
Order the Video |
Being San |
Bushmen's Reaction |
Interesting Screenings |
A multi sensory experience |
Synopsis |
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A documentary feature by
AN AARDVARK / EARTHRISE / LIQUID PICTURES / OFF THE FENCE PRODUCTION
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Executive Producer: James Hersov |
Producer: Ellen Windemuth |
| "When you track an animal - you must become the animal. |
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The !Xo San of the central Kalahari have been a part of this vast desert landscape since ancient times. !Nqate is one of them. Together with his friends Karoha and Xlhoase, they hunt as their ancestors have for thousands of years. "We are San bushmen, sons and daughters of the first people," he explains. "We know hunting. This is what we were born to do."
The ultimate expression of this relationship is the "chasing hunt" - a run to the death. This incredible feat of skill, tenacity and endurance is rarely practiced and has never before been filmed. We join Karoha as he alone runs down his prey, tracking at high speed over difficult terrain and in 46ºC (120ºF) heat, until man or animal must collapse from sheer exhaustion. |
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"I hunt with Karoha and Xlhoase - Xlhoase is a bow hunter - he is older than me - Karoha is still young - he hunts by running, by chasing the animal until it gives itself to him." |  |
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The San, often referred to as "The First People", are widely acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, with an unbroken link to their ancestors who have lived in the same region for the over 30,000 years.
Our eyes are opened to their mastery of tracking and their holistic way of assessing so many different signs that are invisible to the outsider. Through the three central characters, !Nqate, Karoha and Xlhoase, the harshness and beauty of the world's largest expanse of sand, the Kalahari, is exposed. Moreover, we show how the poverty of their material existence stands in stark contrast to the wealth of their indigenous knowledge.
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 Three years ago, James Hersov, brothers Craig and Damon Foster and Ellen Windemuth, set out to make a film about San Hunting and Tracking. What they experienced was simply extraordinary. This project records their encounters with three master hunters who opened up a world that is a revelation to all who have an interest in the peoples and landscape that is Africa.
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 The Great Dance is proudly sponsored in South Africa by Coca-Cola |
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!Nqate is a hunter.
Through their eyes we perceive a world invisible to outsiders. The subtlest signs are imperceptible to the untrained eye, but they are enough to lead !Nqate to his prey. Tracks in the sand are only the beginning - the skills of the San hunter are virtually a sixth sense, a complex bond between man and animal.
The film follows a group of !Xo San in the central Kalahari, focusing on the unique relationship between their lifestyle, the land and the animals they hunt. Hunting is fundamental to their culture, and in the film we develop this issue, culminating in "the chasing hunt" where they have to "take over" the animal's mind in this ancient battle of human-animal endurance. This is the first time that anyone has photographed, filmed and documented in such detail, firsthand, this process where the "hunter becomes the hunted".
Innovative mini-cam techniques, where cameras are mounted on animals, were specially developed for the film, giving the viewer unique points-of-view of both the hunter and the hunted in an effort to understand their ancient relationship.
The various San communities have been assimilated, marginalised and dispossessed of their rights to their land and ancient hunting grounds in a gradual way over the past couple of hundred years and in an accelerated way more recently. In the face of this, the film chronicles the extraordinary tenacity of these people as they move between one world and the next. Elements of their life today, such as the trance dance and hunting, still provide a powerful visual link to their ancestors who shared the same rhythm many thousands of years ago.
