Our synopsis in 2001:

Debuted as a work in progress at Encounters 1999, we are pleased to screen the completed multi-award-winning feature. The San are widely acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa, with an unbroken link to their ancestors who have lived in the same region for over 30,000 years. The film follows a group of !Xo San in the central Kalahari, focusing on the unique relationship between their lifestyle, the land and the animals they hunt. Hunting is fundamental to their culture, and in “the chasing hunt”, the San must “take over” the animal’s mind in this ancient battle of human-animal endurance. This is the first time that anyone has photographed, filmed and documented in such detail the ancient rites where the “hunter becomes the hunted”.

Our synopsis in 1999:

Craig Foster (Earthrise Films) and Damon Foster (Liquid Pictures) specialise in an organic style of filmmaking designed to stimulate the viewers’ deep sense of animals, landscape and fellow human beings.

The Great Dance, on the master trackers of the Kalahari, [co-produced with Discovery, National Geographic and TBS], has led to the use of miniature cameras mounted in unusual places, sometimes on animals. The idea was inspired by the Gwi trackers’ extreme ability to project their minds into the animals they hunt.

Craig and Damon work closely with executive producers Ellen Widemuth and James Herson in an ongoing process of shooting and editing, slowly nurturing the film into shape over a period of 2 years. We are very pleased to have them both present an extract of their visually stunning work on Saturday, 26 June 1999, at 8 pm.