N!ai
September 29th, 2008 by anthro104-dkFor anyone interested in learning about N!ai, the film made about her life, and the San !Kung people that we watched in class, the Documentary Educational Resources has a study guide available at http://www.der.org/resources/study-guides/N!ai.pdf. I hadn’t looked at it in a very long time and had forgotten that it included a very disjointed, yet nonetheless useful transcript of much of the dialogue of the film. Reading it tonight, I was also reminded that they made a mistake in the film in saying N!ai was eight when she was first married to /Gunda. She was actually eleven years-old. Importantly, however, everyone should realize that this marriage was ceremonial at this point and consummation of the marriage was not expected of N!ai (as you recall, she says she ran home that night and slept in her mother’s hut).
Another remark: you never see the camera or filmmakers of the N!ai film in the film itself, which to me is kind of “old school”. That is, the filmmakers are not being very forthcoming about their roles in the process. We can see that they do have some kind of effect on the community, as the charismatic N!ai is rewarded for her work in the film and others are jealous of her access to more material resources. I also find myself feeling uncomfortable as the camera follows the all-out fight about two-thirds of the way through the film — seems rather intrusive, doesn’t it? I wonder what other tensions the anthropologists and filmmakers may exacerbate?
I purposely try not to assign things like this because I don’t want to bury you under too much reading, but I like this blog as a place where those of you who are interested can find more resources. Let me know what you think.
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