Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the role filmmakers have played and continue to play in perpetuating a mythic portrayal of the so-called “Kalahari-Bushmen” which has locked them in space and time and continues to have major negative impacts upon their lives. The paper explores the Western fantasies of a pristine Eden which keeps the myth alive and the devastating effects upon real people (the Ju/’hoansi) as well as one filmmakers attempt to dispel the myth.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how documentary and feature filmmakers have used the "Bushmen of the Kalahari" as a screen to project fantasies of a 'window on the Pleistocene.' From the documentaries dating back to the 1950s when groups of "Bushmen" were still living relatively independently by hunting and gathering, the paper will show how an urge to portray people and landscape as part of some pristine wilderness - which resonates with an Eden or Golden Age has led filmmakers to deny reality and perpetuate a myth of "illud tempus," or timeless beginnings. With reference to archetypal psychology, the paper will explore mythic fantasies at work in the Western Psyche, and show the negative effects of these shadow projections upon the Ju/'hoansi whose name means The Real or True People. The paper then shows how one filmmaker, John Marshall, woke up to the mythic projections in which he had himself indulged in his formative years and spent the rest of his life returning repeatedly to the Kalahari to counter the damage he felt the mythmaking of filmmakers and others had done. Finally the paper suggests a more conscious mode of filming in remote indigenous communities and 'exotic' places which is reflexive and takes cognizance of the tendency to project myths and fantasies, while respecting local traditions and culture.