US film reviewers are saying... - TimeOut New York "… spectacular and unnerving …" "…a bonanza of energetic imagery …" - The Village Voice "… hot and sweaty with fetching curves."    more... - New York Times "… immense visual beauty, compassion and a sense of adventure …" "… remarkable documentary …" "… The Great Dance constitutes an act of preservation and a requiem."    more... - New York Newsday "Exquisitely photographed and directed …" "… one of those rare films that successfully captures and communicates a way of life and an aesthetic that is indeed exotic." "… truly astounding photography of animals …" "*** ½"    more... - New York Daily News "… an eloquent record of an event that may never be seen by outside eyes again." "***"    more... What the South African critics are saying - The Star Tonight "… a remarkable documentary about a hunt …" "…a touching tale of an almost extinct breed …" - Mail & Guardian "This is genuine, sincere and lyrical stuff…" - Citizen "… a visually stimulating and emotionally moving experience…" "A must-see"     more... - Sunday Independent "a different vision and a different world…" Screen Africa September 2000 by Joanna Sterkowicz - Features Editor, Screen Africa First Local Doccie on Big Screen For the first time ever, South African cinema chain Ster-Kinekor Pictures will be releasing a locally made, feature-length documentary on the circuit. The Great Dance, an Aardvark / Earthrise / Liquid Pictures / Off The Fence co-production in association with KirchMedia, e.tv and Primedia Pictures, will open on the local Cinema Nouveau circuit in mid-October. Helen Kuun of Ster-Kinekor Pictures Independent Marketing says the division is looking to expand its existing exhibition platform to accommodate locally made feature documentaries. "The quality of South African documentaries is so good that they deserve to be seen on the big screen," she comments. Shot and directed by Cape Town-based brothers Craig and Damon Foster and executive produced by James Hersov, The Great Dance delves deep into the Culture of the Kalahari San (Bushman) and features unique, never-before-seen footage captured by specially adapted digital camera technology. Hersov approached Ster-Kinekor Pictures with an 80-minute version of the film (on 35mm) and says they had no hesitation in wanting to take it on. "They were so encouraging and embraced the film in a really positive way. It's a brave step for any theatrical distributor to commit to documentaries as, commercially speaking, they are not hugely exciting projects for cinemas. Non-fiction on the big screen is very much a niche market which is why I'm hoping the fact that The Great Dance is a finalist in the prestigious WildScreen Panda Awards in Bristol will generate more interest in the film," says Hersov. He notes that a New York cinema release is scheduled for September 2000, an achievement that required "very lengthy and difficult negotiations" on the part of the producers. The hope is to roll out the film in other cities in the USA and the UK. The history Three and a half years ago, Hersov came up with the idea of doing a film about the Kalahari Bushman. "At the time, there was lots of global discussion about the continent of Africa being the Origins of Man, so having studied anthropology and archaeology myself, I wanted to do a film about a people whose lineage in this same region goes go back over 30 000 years. "There have been several films about bushmen made already, but I wanted to go deeper and focus on tracking and hunting, something that I thought would have broad, international appeal." His immediate choice for director / cameraman was Earthrise's Craig Foster, with whom he had worked on previous projects. "Craig is one of the most exciting cameraman in this country - he's got a truly unique eye. Even our German partners from KirchMedia says that the footage on this film is totally different to anything else they've ever seen." Liquid Picture's Damon Foster, an editor / cameraman, then joined the project as did Ellen Windemuth from Off The Fence. The first source of funding came from KirchMedia, which owns both the broadcast and theatrical rights for the film in the German territories (Discovery Germany will air a 52-minute version of the programme). One of the problems with raising further finance from the broadcast sector was that the film doesn't fit into a neatly defined slot - it is neither entirely natural history nor anthropology nor wildlife, but a combination of all three and more. Subsequently, local free-to-air broadcaster e.tv bought the TV rights for the whole of Africa. The producers are holding back on further television sales to see how the planned theatrical release goes. Costly method of filming Most documentaries take a fair while to shoot but creating The Great Dance was something of a lengthy layering process. The filmmakers would go out into the Kalahari and film, go back back home and edit, then return to show the bushmen what they'd captured and then start shooting again. This process was repeated several times over a period of a year and a half. Hersov comments: "This is certainly not the cheapest way to shoot a documentary but I believe it was worth it as our film has reached great depths into the subject matter and provides a real investigation of how the San integrate with their environment". The Great Dance was made in conjunction with WIMSA (Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa) and is the first film in which the San people actually hold an equity stake. Craig Foster reveals that many months worth of research had to be effected before each probe into the Kalahari. "Every single trip into the region required extensive planning as there is no water, power or petrol in those very remote areas." "Conditions in the Kalahari, as one might imagine, were extremely harsh, with temperatures reaching highs of 47 degrees Centigrade. We took our own food supplies, the bushmen hunted and we pooled our resources," says Damon Foster. Initial contact with the San was made through various consultants. The Fosters point out that while the bushmen were always very polite, only once they saw some of the footage did they become really giving. "We would go through each sequence in the film with them to get their detailed feedback. They really saw the potential of the film at the rough cut stage," says Craig Foster. Roving cameras The filmmakers worked with master trackers to help design the shots. Cameras mounted on special harnesses constructed by the Fosters were attached to habituated animals (such as springboks and birds) to capture unique viewpoints. At one stage, a tiny camera operating via radio frequency was attached to a bushman spear to record its flight. Five digital cameras of various shapes and sizes were used, three of which did not make it to the end of the shoot. One of the most dramatic incidents involved a camera attached to a vulture carcass. The birds literally tore the camera apart whilst scavenging the carcass but fortunately the tape and its precious footage survived. Both Foster brothers directed and filmed simultaneously and say the success of the project was in large part due to their "good brotherly communication". Explains Damon Foster: "We make a very complementary team. Being an editor, I could think ahead while we were shooting. This kind of project definitely needs at least two people filming at the same time and we always had a very good idea of what the other was doing." Taking shape Damon Foster edited on a Media 100 non-linear editing system. "It certainly was an evolutionary way of making a film and very difficult to structure from an editing point of view. What we shot wasn't always what we planned but I think because of that the story comes out in a far truer and realistic way. During editing we would keep going back to our source tapes and each time pick up something that we'd missed before" The filmmakers had a multitude of tapes to work through, shot in many different formats DVCAM, Digi Beta, Betacam and Minicam). The blow up to 35mm was done through a contact in Los Angeles, Ed Armstrong, with whom Craig Foster had made two HD films in America. Scoring the film Even the music track for The Great Dance is filled with the sounds of the Kalahari. Composer Barry Donnelly used some of the traditional San music and instruments in the score, as well as integrating raw elements of the Kalahari. For example, Donnelly used the sound of porcupine tail quills in an ostrich shell to create a rhythm, and in another case, the sound of individual raindrops on sand. In addition he played "drums" on rivers with his bare hands. Country Life Oct2000 Dancing the hunt Text by Bettie Coetzee Three years ago, James Hersov and brothers Craig and Damon Foster set out to make a film about San hunting and tracking. Their extraordinary experience 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. "A story is like wind - it comes floating from a far off place," begins the San bushman, !Nqate Xqamxebe, his story. It is the story he told, filmmakers Craig and Damon Foster who are bringing a documentary of their life to the big screen. With cameras mounted on animals, spears and arrows the film team has managed to capture a lifestyle and culture that still roots 30 000 years into distant history. They have succeeded to project an understanding to the non specialist, of the symbiotic relationship between man and his environment as only the artistic vision can do. Watching this movie it is like feeling the heartbeat of prehistoric time. It is not merely about how people live, what they do, how they hunt. Those activities are mere strands in a cloth of human experience so complex and rich in their symbolic value, that one feels the spiritual bond between man and nature. You understand the hunt as the cheetah does, and the kudu and the porcupine. And as the !Xo San of the central Kalahari desert does. It is a ritual of survival, of death and the joy of living. All expressed through the dance of the hunt. We managed to catch Craig on the telephone to talk about this unique film that will Premier at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau theatres in South Africa on October 20th. At the same time in New York. It is the first time that a South African non-fiction film will be shown on the big screen. "One often has extraordinary experiences in the wild," the artist in Craig speaks. "And you know how difficult it is to put it in words. That's why we tried pictures." "We aimed to take the viewers beyond their normal scope of vision. To stimulate feeling and create impressions rather than simply follow the action and catalogue facts like in a conventional documentary. We try to evoke the "cinematic" experience." Visuals allow the viewer to see the arrow like the gemsbok sees it, or feel the dazzling sun like the San tracker does. And the ecstasy of rain as the ant and the praying mantis knows it. They succeeded in capturing the rhythm of Africa and sound. Organic and natural sounds plus the traditional musical instruments of Africa combine to "breathe its own message." Most of the soundtrack is composed of organic matter - rocks, sand, feathers, and quills from the Kalahari. All these things are played like musical instruments by composer Barry Donnelly. Ambient sound recording was taken of the insects, birds and animals after the rain. The music draws on these natural sounds and rhythms. The film follows a group of !Xo San in the central Kalahari, focusing on the unique relationship between their lifestyle, nature and the animals they share it with. Hunting to the San is fundamental to their culture. Not hunting for sport, or for trophy collecting as it has become known in the Western mind. Hunting to them is like breathing, making love, praising the gods. "In the film, Craig explains, "we develop this issue. It culminates in "the chasing hunt" that super human endurance battle between human and animal, where the hunter goes into a kind of trance while he "takes over" the animal's mind." This is the first time that anyone has photographed, filmed and documented in such detail, firsthand, this process where the "hunter becomes the hunted". Even over the telephone line between Johannesburg and Cape Town, I sense Craig's excitement as he recalls the day the film team set out on their 4x4, to follow Karoha, Xlhoase and !Nqate on this most extreme test of endurance. The USA Olympic athlete, Teo Bielefeld was one of the team. He carried sound equipment and camera. If the vehicles failed us due to punctures or for any other reason, Teo would follow the runners with a miniature camera and a camelback of water, linked to his mouth by a pipe. The Bushmen would rely on their usual one litre of water they carried with them. Finally, when it was "hot enough for the chase to begin" - the thermometer read 42 degree Celsius at 9:00 that morning, we strapped ourselves onto the top of the vehicle. After 5 hours of non stop running over sand, thorns tracking the herd of gemsbok without seeing them, two of the runners gave up. Karoha continued. We knew we were witnessing something incredible - an ancient relationship between man and antelope, at the most extreme level. There are very few people on earth who have the skill to even attempt such a feat." As the cameramen follow Karoha, we hear what is really happening from the commentary of his fellow hunter who had to give up the chase. "Now Karoha is becoming kudu. He doesn't follow the track. He is one of them. He thinks of his family who must eat meat. He must outrun his thirst. He knows it is only himself and his spears. Now he must help her to die." In this so poignant scene, there is no macho display of heroism. Only a humble acceptance of a task to be done. A need for survival. No glorious music and sounding of trumpets. Just a mutual respect between equals where today, luck belonged to the other. One feels the sense of wonder and amazement Craig experienced when he became part of the inside story of these peoples lives. In the three years it took to research and make the film, the team (directors Craig and Damon Foster, executive producer, James Hersov, whose idea the whole project was, and producer Ellen Windemuth), developed a special relationship of trust with the San. As trust developed between filmmakers and hunters, a number of practices not previously well-known to anthropologists were exposed, especially certain phases of the legendary "chasing hunt" where the hunters risk their lives by running down large antelope in the fierce heat of the day. Three of the five digital tape cameras used were destroyed in the quest for radical shots. One was broken by dozens of vultures as the camera was mounted underneath a carcass, on which they were feeding. Nevertheless, most of this footage was recovered. Other feats of the San that astonished the filmmakers were their unbelievable mastery of observation. For their skill in reading almost invisible signs in the sand and on plants - and doing it on a fast run - they must hold a world record. "We came to a waterhole when Kaloha suddenly stopped," Craig tells me. His voice rings with disbelief, as if he is still wondering whether he really witnessed it. "Kaloha's hands moved over the messy marks in the mud. He seemed in deep concentration while he mumbled and gesticulated. We captured his explanation on our tape recorder (later transcribed and translated): 'Hyena came here in the night. Gemsbok came past this morning. Later in morning Kudu drank. A few minutes ago a little bird took water.' "We could only marvel. And yet this was just scratching the surface of his knowledge. For him this was kindergarten stuff. At other times he would look at what seemed to us a plat piece of sand and a story will come out." Yet another of the main focuses of the movie, Craig says, was to show, through the three central characters, !Nqate Xqamxebe, Karoha "Pro" Langwane and Xlhoase Xlhokhne, the harshness and beauty of the world's largest expanse of sand, the Kalahari. Moreover, we wanted to show how the poverty of the San bushmen's (the !Xo, Xwikwe, the Nharo people) material existence stands in stark contrast to the wealth of their indigenous knowledge. Before I managed to catch Craig for our interview, I watched the movie. I knew before he put it into words, "This film is more poetry than prose. It is about reality, firmly rooted in fact." But fact presented in such a way that it becomes a shared experience. That is the function of true art. Wildlife Film News Issue 19 January 2001 www.wildlife-film.com The awards won by the film 'The Great Dance' have been the more impressive considering that the film was made without a major broadcaster attached. I asked producer Ellen Windemuth (Off The Fence - The Netherlands) for the background story: "The Great Dance and it's three-Panda-win have sparked a lot of thought and discussion among producers and commissioning editors about what natural history really is. Clearly, the film marks a departure from the pure behavioral animal film, not only because there are people in it: the story itself ties man and animal together with the social circumstances both find themselves in today. The film was a real matter of the heart. Originally, a team of four people united to make a film about tracking. The directors, brothers Craig and Damon Foster, were fascinated with the ability of the San people to seemingly merge their minds with animals and thus predict where to find them. This means an ability higher than reason and empirical knowledge, comparable to a top physicist devising a theory and reasoning his way backward. Craig and Damon asked our Executive Producer James Hersov, and me to join them in their quest to get to the bottom of this. The tracking film turned into a respectable documentary about tracking and conservation. However, we were not satisfied. On location, Craig and Damon had witnessed a chasing hunt -- a ritual hunt where a San hunter runs down a Kudu until it collapses -- which made us feel we needed to go deeper. We decided to raise extra funding, use our credit cards and make a second film about the issue that interested us most: the depth and nature of the San's relationship with animals, and man and animal's social circumstances today. Our German cofinancier Kirch Media backed our idea, and we began the extra shooting. We chose an editing process where we placed layer upon layer of imagery, with constructed minicam sequences to get as close as we could to the subject matter. Writer Jeremy Evans joined us, instrumental in putting the experience into words. As we had not managed to attach any major broadcaster to the project, we made the film without the input of a commissioning editor. While the film took shape, we roamed the marketplace for the completion funding -- each time we asked for funding, we had more to show, which made reappearances after initial rejections possible. Simultaneously to raising the funding from Primedia/Ster Kinekor, Coca Cola and eTV (South Africa's new broadcaster) we lobbied for the film with WIMSA (Working Group for Independent Minorities in Southern Africa) who came back with more than we had hoped for: they pronounced the film as truly representative of the San people and their situation, and accepted our offer to be attached to the project as equity partners in exchange for expert advice and guidance on the subject. Coca Cola's funding and a very cost-conscious strategy enabled us to create a longer 35mm version of the film, which made it possible for us to show the film in the arthouse circuit in the States and South Africa. Interestingly, our theatrical audience was very general, no heavy emphasis on natural history enthusiasts. To date, the Great Dance has become the highest grossing theatrical documentary in South Africa. Hopefully, its unusual path to a larger range of viewers will continue."

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