Bitter Melons : !Kung San Series
Film et Vidéo
- Auteurs : Marshall John Kennedy (1932-2005) ; Marshall Lorna J. (1898-2002) ;
- Editeurs : Watertown Documentary Educational Resources [éd., distrib.] ;
- Date d'édition : 2004
- Sujets : Films documentaires -- Namibie, Films ethnographiques, Bochimans (peuple d'Afrique), Gwi (peuple du Botswana), Ethnologie, Musique, Afrique australe -- Conditions sociales, Kalahari (désert)
- Langue(s) : Anglais
- Description matérielle : 1 DVD vidéo monoface simple couche zone 0 (30 min), 4/3, coul.
- Pays de publication : États-Unis
- Collection (notice d'ensemble) : !Kung San Series
Notes
Film en version originale en anglais et Ju/Wasi. Commentaire anglais ; Tourné en Namibie en 1955
Résumé
This is a film about a small band of /Gwi San living in the arid landscape of the central Kalahari Desert in Africa. The hardships of their everyday survival are woven into the songs of a blind musician, Ukxone, who composes music on a hunting bow. His songs evoke the /Gwi landscape and its diverse wildlife; they depict the routine of their daily lives: gathering food, collecting water, hunting for animals, and sharing as a community.Bitter Melons, his favorite song, is about a woman who learned from her Bantu neighbors to plant melon seeds despite the agriculturalists protesting that wild melons taste bitter. Song, dance, landscape, and life are not so separated for the /Gwi San; their margins are fluid. !Gai, a member of the band, returns one day with a group of his relatives. Visitors and hosts enjoy the social occasion, as young boys play animal games (porcupine, hyena), and make their own traditional music on the bow (songs of animals, like giraffe and kudu). Men and boys dance the 'ostrich courting dance.' Finally, !Gai and his family depart with their other relatives into the tall grass of the veld to the sound of Ukxone's Bitter Melons.