Known For
Directing
Born
Nov 12, 1932
Died
Apr 22, 2005
Place of Birth
Massachusetts, USA
Credits
42 titles
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
Filmography
A Kalahari Family
Himself
To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report
Director
N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman
Director
Margaret Mead: A Portrait By a Friend
Sound Recordist
If It Fits
Director
Baobab Play
Director
The Meat Fight
Director
Manifold Controversy
Director
Two Brothers
Director
The Informant
Director
Wrong Kid
Director
Men Bathing
Director
A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding
Director
The 4th, 5th, and the Exclusionary Rule
Director
You Wasn't Loitering
Director
Nothing Hurt But My Pride
Director
Youth and the Man of Property
Director
Twenty-One Dollars or Twenty-One Days
Director
After the Game
Director
Playing with Scorpions
Director
901/904
Director
The Wasp Nest
Director
A Rite of Passage
Director
Investigation of a Hit and Run
Director
Debe's Tantrum
Director
Bitter Melons
Director
Three Domestics
Director
Vagrant Woman
Director
Inside/Outside Station Nine
Director
N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game
Director
Inside Outside Station 9
Director
The Lion Game
Director
An Argument About a Marriage
Director
N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen
Director
A Curing Ceremony
Director
Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study
Production Assistant
Titicut Follies
Director of Photography
A Joking Relationship
Director
A Group of Women
Director
The Hunters
Narrator
First Film
Director of Photography
!Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment
Director