[
Two million feet of Marshall's 16mm documentary footage along with thousands of hours of video footage as well as edited films and videos of Juǀʼhoansi are held at the ]Human Studies Film Archives The Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) is a sister archive to the National Anthropological Archives within the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. HSFA preserves and provides access to ethnographic films and anthropological moving ima ...
, Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. Known officially as the John Marshall Juǀʼhoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950–2000, the collection was added to UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's Memory of the World Register
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...
for documentary heritage of world importance in July 2009. Cynthia Close, former Executive Director of Documentary Educational Resources, called the collection, "unparalleled in the history of film and in the history of documenting humanity".
Evolution of reality filmmaking
John Marshall produced realistic films that combined documentary media and ethnographic film. His work offers an evolving, original, and unique view on what was technically possible and stylistic in documentary through his more than fifty years as a filmmaker. Marshall was a pioneer in the cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or ...
style. He is quoted as saying, "I began shooting events from angles and distances that approximated the perspectives of the people I was filming, I tried to film as a member of the group rather than shoot standing outside as an observer." He began thinking about his position vis-à-vis the people he was filming, asking, "Am I someone in the group? Who? Why am I looking at the other person? Am I an outside observer? If I am an observer who am I? Is there anyone else observing from this angle and distance? What are they seeing and thinking?" Marshall's shooting style evolved to reflect his position within the society he was filming, that of participant more than outside observer. As similar as this approach sounds to cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or ...
, Marshall employed sit-down interviews in many of his films such as '' Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman'' and cinéma vérité does not use sit-down interviews.
In his early films, and indeed, most of his films about the Juǀʼhoansi, Marshall presents realistic views of the changing life of the once hunter-gatherer culture, but he himself is never a central character in those films. However, in his 2002 6-episode film ''A Kalahari Family'', the curtain is pulled and John Marshall, as well as his family, who by that time had been involved in both ethnographic and then political efforts with the Juǀʼhoansi since the early 1950s, are revealed. This may be the ultimate in reality filmmaking, as the Marshalls have been intimately involved in the Juǀʼhoansi culture, making both positive and negative impacts, and finally in ''A Kalahari Family'', their impact is explored.
Filmography
*1957: '' The Hunters''
*1961: ''A Group Of Women''
*1962: ''A Joking Relationship''
*1967: ''Titicut Follies
''Titicut Follies'' is a 1967 American direct cinema documentary film produced, written, and directed by Frederick Wiseman and filmed by John Marshall. It deals with the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, a ...
'' (cinematographer)
*1969: ''An Argument About Marriage''
*1969: ''‘N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen''
*1969: ''A Curing Ceremony''
*1970: ''Inside/Outside Station 9'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1970: ''The Melon Tossing Game''
*1970: ''The Lion Game''
*1971: ''Three Domestics'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1971: ''Vagrant Woman'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1971: ''Bitter Melons''
*1972: ''Investigation of a Hit and Run'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1972: ''901/904'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1972: ''Debe’‘s Tantrum''
*1972: ''Playing With Scorpions''
*1972: ''A Rite of Passage''
*1972: ''!Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment''
*1972: ''A Wasp Nest''
*1973: ''After the Game'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''The Informant'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''A Legal Discussion of a Hit and Run'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Manifold Controversy'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Nothing Hurt But My Pride'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Two Brothers'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''$21 or 21 Days'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Wrong Kid'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''You Wasn't Loitering'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Henry Is Drunk'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''The 4th, 5th, & Exclusionary Rule'' (Pittsburgh Police Series)
*1973: ''Men Bathing''
*1974: ''The Meat Fight''
*1974: ''Baobab Play''
*1974: ''Children Throw Toy Assegais''
*1974: ''Tug-Of-War-Bushmen''
*1978: ''If It Fits''
*1980: '' N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman''
*1985: ''Pull Ourselves Up Or Die Out''
*1987: ''The !Kung San: Traditional Life''
*1988: ''The !Kung San: Resettlement''
*1990: ''To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report''
*2001: ''Between Two Worlds: John Marshall'' (interviewee)
*2002:
A Kalahari Family
'
Publications
;By John Marshall
* "Filming and Learning," in a special edition of ''Visual Anthropology'' entitled ''The Cinema of John Marshall'', Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1993
* "Plight of the Bushman," ''Leadership Magazine'', Johannesburg, South Africa, 1985
* "Where are the Ju/'hoansi of Nyae Nyae? Changes in a Bushman Society 1950–1981," with Claire Ritchie, for Center for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 1984
* "Death Blow to the Bushmen," in ''Cultural Survival Quarterly'', Vol. 8, No. 3, 1984
* "Urban Film," with Emilie de Brigard in ''Visual Anthropology'', Paul Hockings, Editor, H. Mouton & Co,, The Hague, 1975
* "Man as a Hunter," ''Natural History Museum'', 1958
;On John Marshall
* Tomaselli, Keyan, ''Visual Anthropology, Encounters in the Kalahari'', Chicago, 1999.
* Ruby, Jay, ''The Cinema of John Marshall'', Switzerland, 1993.
* Kapfer, J., Petermann, W., Thoms, R.,''Jager und Gejagte John Marshall und seine Filme'', Germany, 1991.
See also
*Tim Asch
Timothy Asch (July 16, 1932 – October 3, 1994) was an American anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology. He i ...
References
External links
John Marshall (III) (1932–2005)
IMDb.com
*
* (biographical short documentary on John Marshall)
* (interview with John Marshall)
*
Guide to the John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950–2000
Human Studies Film Archives and National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Web exhibition on the John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection
UNESCO
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, John
Visual anthropologists
1932 births
2005 deaths
Deaths from lung cancer
Harvard University alumni
Memory of the World Register
20th-century American anthropologists