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John Marshall

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
2

Gender
Male

Birthday
November 12, 1932 (93 years old)

Place of Birth
Massachusetts, USA

John Marshall

Biography

John Kennedy Marshall (November 12, 1932 – April 22, 2005) was an American anthropologist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker best known for his work in Namibia recording the lives of the Ju/'hoansi (also called the !Kung Bushmen).

Marshall first traveled to the Kalahari Desert and met the Ju/'hoansi of the Nyae Nyae area in 1949 on a trip initiated by his father. Throughout the 1950s and 1960's members of the Marshall family returned to the Kalahari Desert numerous times to conduct an ethnographic study of the Ju/'hoansi. From 1950-1958 Marshall filmed the hunting and gathering life of the Ju/'hoansi. His first edited film, The Hunters, was released in 1957 and was an almost instant classic of ethnographic film.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Marshall produced many short films about the Ju/'hoansi of Nyae Nyae and pursued other film projects in the United States. He was the cinematographer and co-director for Fred Wiseman's first documentary film, Titicut Follies. In 1968-1969, he shot, edited and directed the ground-breaking Pittsburgh Police series of short films. In 1968, Marshall and Tim Asch founded Documentary Educational Resources, a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating the use of cross-cultural documentaries in the classroom.

Marshall became involved in grassroots organizing and development in Nyae Nyae in the 1980s, forming a foundation that would become the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia and devoting himself to advocating on behalf of the Ju/'hoansi. In 2003, the Society for Visual Anthropology bestowed on Marshall a lifetime achievement award for his work among the hunter gatherer society.

Marshall's documentary footage and edited films and videos of Ju/'hoansi are held at the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Known officially as the John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950–2000, the collection was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register for documentary heritage of world importance in July 2009.

Known For

Directing

2001A Kalahari Family...Director
1991To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report...Director
1981N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman...Director
1978If It Fits...Director
1974Baobab Play...Director
1974The Meat Fight...Director
1973After the Game...Director
1973A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding...Director
1973The 4th, 5th, and the Exclusionary Rule...Director
1973The Informant...Director
1973Manifold Controversy...Director
1973Nothing Hurt But My Pride...Director
1973Twenty-One Dollars or Twenty-One Days...Director
1973Two Brothers...Director
1973Wrong Kid...Director
1973You Wasn't Loitering...Director
1973Youth and the Man of Property...Director
1973Men Bathing...Director
1972Playing with Scorpions...Director
1972Investigation of a Hit and Run...Director
1972Debe's Tantrum...Director
1972A Rite of Passage...Director
1972The Wasp Nest...Director
1972901/904...Director
1971Bitter Melons...Director
1971Three Domestics...Director
1971Vagrant Woman...Director
1970Inside/Outside Station Nine...Director
1970The Lion Game...Director
1970Inside Outside Station 9...Director
1970N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game...Director
1969An Argument About a Marriage...Director
1969A Curing Ceremony...Director
1969N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen...Director
1962A Joking Relationship...Director
1961A Group of Women...Director
1957The Hunters...Director

Camera

1981N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman...Director of Photography
1970The Lion Game...Camera Operator
1969N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen...Camera Operator
1967Titicut Follies...Director of Photography
1957The Hunters...Director of Photography
First Film...Director of Photography

Editing

1981N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman...Editor
1957The Hunters...Editor

Sound

1978Margaret Mead: A Portrait By a Friend...Sound Recordist

Production

1968Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study...Production Assistant

Acting

2001A Kalahari Familyas Himself
1957The Huntersas Narrator