Film

N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman

1981 · 59m · Documentary

IMDb

7.6

This film provides a broad overview of Ju/'hoan life, both past and present, and an intimate portrait of N!ai, a Ju/'hoan woman who in 1978 was in her mid-thirties. N!ai tells her own story, and in so doing, the story of Ju/'hoan life over a thirty year period. "Before the white people came we did what we wanted," N!ai recalls, describing the life she remembers as a child: following her mother to pick berries, roots, and nuts as the season changed; the division of giraffe meat; the kinds of rain; her resistance to her marriage to /Gunda at the age of eight; and her changing feelings about her husband when he becomes a healer. As N!ai speaks, the film presents scenes from the 1950's that show her as a young girl and a young wife. The uniqueness of N!ai may lie in its tight integration of ethnography and history. While it portrays the changes in Ju/'hoan society over thirty years, it never loses sight of the individual, N!ai.

• Adrienne MiesmerDirector · Editor
• John MarshallDirector · Editor · Director of Photography
• Michael AmbrosinoExecutive Producer
• Mark ErderDirector of Photography
• Ross McElweeDirector of Photography

Release date

May 3, 1981

Status

Released

Original language

English

Runtime

59m

Genres

Documentary