The Hunters (1957 film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunters is a 1957 ethnographic film
about a giraffe
hunt in the Kalahari Desert
by four members of the JuǀʼHoansi tribe
. The footage was shot by John Marshall
during a Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody
sponsored expedition in 1952–53.
The resulting film, which was produced at the Film Study Center of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University by John Marshall in collaboration with Robert Gardner, won the Robert J. Flaherty
Award for best one-off documentary from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
in 1958, and was named to the National Film Registry
by the Librarian of Congress in 2003 for its "cultural, aesthetic, or historical significance".
Ethnographic film
An ethnographic film is a documentary film related to the methods of ethnology. It emerged in the 1960s as an important tool for research in the domain of visual anthropology, when filming human groups in society...
about a giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
hunt in the Kalahari Desert
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...
by four members of the JuǀʼHoansi tribe
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
. The footage was shot by John Marshall
John Marshall (filmmaker)
John Marshall was an American anthropologist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker best known for his work in Namibia recording the lives of the Ju/'hoansi tribe...
during a Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
sponsored expedition in 1952–53.
The resulting film, which was produced at the Film Study Center of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University by John Marshall in collaboration with Robert Gardner, won the Robert J. Flaherty
Robert J. Flaherty
Robert Joseph Flaherty, F.R.G.S. was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film, Nanook of the North...
Award for best one-off documentary from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
in 1958, and was named to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Librarian of Congress in 2003 for its "cultural, aesthetic, or historical significance".
External links
- The Hunters at Documentary Educational ResourcesDocumentary Educational ResourcesDocumentary Educational Resources is a US non-profit producer and distributor of film and video in anthropology and ethnology.It was founded in 1968 by independent filmmakers John Marshall and Timothy Asch and is based in Watertown, Massachusetts...