The Tale of the Bushmen opens with the narration: “Somewhere in Africa, in the heart of the Kalahari Desert, beats the pulse of a very ancient people: the Bushmen. Today – persecuted, massacred, driven from their ancestral lands, they are threatened with extinction. Should their traditions, their chants and their laughter die, it will mean the extinction of one of the last groups of hunters-gatherers on the planet.” When wildlife documentary filmmaker, Pierre Mann, had an ‘accidental’ encounter with the San in Botswana 25 years ago, he was beguiled. This started off a life-long passion to get more acquainted with the San – both in Botswana and Namibia – and resulted in a four-year film project in which he tracked the life of one woman, Dikao, and her extended family clan. Over the four years, Mann gathered 60 hours of film footage, depicting the Ju/’hoansi’s way of life during the four seasons of the year.
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