Bitter Melons
name: label: Collection Collaborator
content: McElwee, Ross
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Blitz, Daniel
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Bishop, John Melville
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Baker, Peter
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Ritchie, Claire
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Young, Robert
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Terry, John
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Galvin, Frank
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Bestall, Clifford
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Gardner, Robert
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Asch, Timothy, 1932-1994
label: Collection Creator
content: Marshall, John, 1932-2005
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Marshall, Lorna
setName: label: See more items in
content: John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection
label: See more items in
content: John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection / Series 2: Published Films and Videos
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (sound, color reversal; 1,175 feet (32 minutes), 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1971
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1983.11, File 2005.11.21
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This film, shot in 1955, is about a small band of /Gwi San living in the arid landscape of
the central Kalahari Desert (in present-day Botswana). The hardships of their everyday
survival are woven into the songs of a blind musician, Ukxone, who composes music on
a hunting bow. His songs evoke the /Gwi landscape and its diverse wildlife; they depict
the routine of their daily lives: gathering food, collecting water, hunting for animals, and
sharing as a community. Bitter Melons, his favorite song, is about a woman who learned
from her Bantu neighbors to plant melon seeds despite the agriculturalists protesting that
wild melons taste bitter.