For two hundred thousand years
humans have hunted and gathered
on Planet Earth.
The San Bushman
called the Khomani are genetically linked
to all the peoples of the earth.
They are the First People.
This is their story….
Anant Singh presents a Foster Brothers Film in association with Videovision Entertainment,
Distant Horizon, Foster Brother Film Productions, Creative Films,
The Department Of Trade And Industry South Africa and
The National Film And Video Foundation Of South Africa.
My Hunter’s Heart
/Urugab Kruiper
Sanna Witbooi
Tina Swarts
Abijol Kruiper
Amam Kruiper
Boetie Gert
Narrated by
Sello Maake Ka Ncube
Faith Ndakwana
Edited by
Damon Foster
Original Music by
Trevor Jones
Executive Producers
Sudhir Pragjee
Sanjeev Singh
Produced by
Anant Singh
Helena Spring
Produced, Written and Directed by
Craig Foster
Damon Foster
My Hunter's Heart, shot over three and a half years, the film explores the world's most ancient shamanic culture which is severely threatened as their traditional way of life and skills have been taken away from them. It tracks the Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari, the oldest living indigenous tribe in the world, who are genetically linked to every human being on Planet Earth. In modern times, their traditional nomadic way of life has changed and westernisation has severed their link to the land and the animals. The film follows younger members of the clan, /Urugab and his family, as they embark on an epic journey to try to recapture some of the knowledge and skills of their ancestors.
The San or Khomani Bushmen, as they call themselves are the last group of hunter-gatherers that live in South Africa. They represent a way of life that has flourished for tens of thousands of years and unite all the peoples of the world.
Their innate humor which flows through almost every aspect of their life acts as a refuge to the often harsh realities that they deal with every day. All too often it is easy to cast them as naive, living a serene life moving to the ebb and flow of nature. In truth they live a fiercely independent life in a modern world which values little of what they hold precious, it is very hard but somehow they are still able to hold onto the wildness, the spirit of what it really means to be human, to be a bushman.
In this film we were lucky enough to have worked with some of the old hunter’s like Oupa /Gai who remembers as a child living a nomadic life where they were forced to leave the old or infirm in the bush to die rather than to let the whole group suffer, as the rain and animals moved off. Their way of life gave birth to the oldest spiritual practices on earth, to the origin of science and was a blueprint for community life. My Hunter's Heart re-kindles these archetypes in our modern world through the story of three special people.
A question that always seems to emerge is, "when will the Bushmen die out, when will the bow and arrow disappear..." Our desire is that this film will address this and give hope to many of the grand cultures of the world who are also under threat - My Hunter's Heart was one man's dream that reflects what is important to all people.
Damon and Craig Foster
"It is August; it's springtime, it's the fight between winter and summer and my heart is filled with new flowers and I want to thank you for these new flowers.
We have worked very hard on this.
I'm not just speaking for myself but also for my son, my wife, my father and my nephew, for all the bushmen.
My dream has come true.
We all worked together on this.
I kept my dream a secret for so long.
I never wanted to tell people because they wouldn't believe me if they heard it out of my mouth.
If they see it in the video cassette only then will the people that come after me believe that my dream was true.
Everybody that worked on the film I would like to thank, it was worth it.
The Great Spirit guided our journey to show us the truth and I now feel a hundred, a hundred.
My community, my people all feel like me.
We hope there is a new future for my people, I'm very thankful.
My heart is blossoming like nature is blossoming."
Brothers Craig and Damon Foster grew up in a wooden bungalow on the Atlantic Ocean, near the tip of Africa. They have both travelled extensively, living and working in remote villages and wilderness areas in ten African countries.
Their primary intent lies in telling stories with the voice of Africa herself, and creating film experiences that enable the viewer to gain an intense and deep insight into the natural and cultural dynamics of this ancient continent. They explore the timeless and universal themes of the relationship between man and animal, and the relationship between them and the environments that they share. They seek unique and challenging footage, which is enthralling and exciting, without compromising on integrity and sensitivity. They show reality as it is but in a way in which it is not usually seen.
Together they have over thirty international awards for filmmaking in the areas of photography, editing, writing, directing and human/animal interaction.
They work closely together throughout every aspect of the process and have pioneered an organic style of filmmaking that brings new life to the screen.
Directors and D.O.P's.
89 min high-def feature documentary commissioned for Animal Planet, a 52 min reversioning for Canal+ and a reversioning for Discovery Channel. An extraordinary story of a man who has learned to communicate with the world's wildest predator - the Great White shark. Michael Rutzen discovers that sharks have a secret sense and embarks on a daring quest to learn how to hypnotize big sharks, driven by his passion to change the public's opinion about sharks before they reach extinction.
Directors and D.O.P's.
72 min high-def/35mm feature documentary commissioned by Cosmos Studios, the Carl Sagan Foundation.
A personal odyssey of African astronomer Thebe Medupe, who journeys into this ancient continent's astronomical past, unveiling the deep connection humans have with the cosmos.
Directors and D.O.P's.
78 min Cinematic feature/documentary, and a 53 min TV documentary, for KirchMedia, Primedia Pictures and e.tv.
This is the first film ever to be made in full collaboration, throughout production and post-production, with the San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari.
Directors and D.O.P's
50 min, TOP, TBS Superstation, National Geographic; Narrated by Lauren Hutton and featuring the NWF's Paula Del Giudice.
Director and D.O.P (CRAIG) - Best Film, World Wilderness Congress
54 min, TBS Superstation; National Geographic
D.O.P. (CRAIG)
20 min, for Val Kilmer, shot HiDef and transferred to 35mm, locations: NY, LA, New Mexico, Hawaii, Jordan, Iraq.
Director and D.O.P. (CRAIG)
HiDef project for Val Kilmer; NAPS Santa Fe, Mew Mexico
D.O.P. and Editor (DAMON)
Winner of the 1997 Stone award for underwater photography.
D.O.P. and Editor (DAMON)
Winner of the silver medal, South African National TV Assn. Awards. Story of one man's Trans-Atlantic Voyage.
'The Great Dance - a hunter's story'
'The Great Dance - a hunter's story'
Anant Singh is recognised as South Africa's pre-eminent film producer, having produced more than 100 films since 1984. He is responsible for many of the most profound anti-apartheid films made in South Africa, among which are "Place Of Weeping," Sarafina! and Cry, the Beloved Country. Nelson Mandela called him "a producer I respect very much... a man of tremendous ability" when he granted him the film rights to his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom. Singh is set to film Long Walk to Freedom this year.
Singh is the producer of Yesterday (from director, Darrell James Roodt), which received South Africa's first Academy Award Nomination in the Best Foreign Language Picture category in 2005, the Peabody Award and an Emmy Nomination in 2006 in the "Outstanding Made For Television Movie" category.
Born and raised in Durban, Singh began his film career at age 18 when he left his studies at the University of Durban-Westville to purchase a 16mm movie rental store. From there, he moved into video distribution, forming Videovision Entertainment and then progressed into film production in 1984 with Place of Weeping, the first anti-apartheid film to be made entirely in South Africa.
A selection of his subsequent feature films includes: Sarafina! with Whoopi Goldberg, Leleti Khumalo and Miriam Makeba; The Road to Mecca, with Kathy Bates; Father Hood, with Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry; Captives, with Julia Ormond and Tim Roth; Tobe Hooper's The Mangler, with Robert Englund and based on a Stephen King short story; Cry, the Beloved Country, from Alan Paton's revered novel, with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris; Paljas (shot in Afrikaans, the first South African film to be selected for Oscar Consideration in the Best Foreign Language film category); and Red Dust, with Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor, a drama focussing on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Singh's association with South Africa's Number One Boxoffice star, Leon Schuster, saw the production of the Top Three Highest Grossing South African Films of All Time, Mr Bones 2, Mr Bones 1 and Mama Jack.
Directly after the completion of Yesterday, Singh once again teamed up with director, Darrell James Roodt to produce Faith's Corner which starred Leleti Khumalo and scored by multi-award winner Philip Glass. Following this was the stylish Cape Flats gangster film, Dollars And White Pipes directed by Donovan Marsh and which won the Best Director prize at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2006.
Singh produced the hit comedies Mr Bones 2: Back From The Past, Mr Bones and Mama Jack which are among the Top Four Highest Grossing South African Films of All Time, earning more than R35 million, R33 million and R28 million respectively.
Released in 2008 and produced by Singh is More Than Just A Game, the moving docu-drama feature which tells the inspiring story of organised soccer among prisoners on Robben Island (the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were incarcerated by the apartheid regime in South Africa). Following this were the comedy, Jozi directed by Craig Freimond (Gums & Noses) and Outrageous! which sees South Africa's top stand up comics come together in a no-holds barred, adults only stand up comedy experience.
The First Grader which was a hit at the Telluride, Toronto, London and Doha Film Festivals in 2010, tells the remarkable and uplifting story of a proud old Mau Mau veteran who is determined to seize his last opportunity to learn to read and goes to school for the first time, joining a class of six year olds. The film won the coveted Audience Prize in Doha.
Recently completed are the documentary features My Hunter's Heart which explores the world's oldest Shamanic culture and how it is now at the brink of extinction; and Once In A Lifetime which celebrates the magic and euphoria of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Anant Singh has also produced notable documentaries, including Countdown to Freedom, about the first democratic election in South Africa, Prisoners of Hope, about a reunion on Robben Island of 1250 of its former political prisoners led by Nelson Mandela, Hero For All which documents Nelson Mandela's farewell visit to the United States as he stepped down from the South African Presidency. Viva Madiba: A Hero For All Seasons was produced as a 90th Birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela in July 2008 and Obama: People's President, a documentary feature that explores the unique and innovative US presidential campaign mounted by Barack Obama.
In 1996, Videovision Entertainment, together with Kagiso Trust Investments successfully acquired the former SABC radio stations, Radio Oranje (OFM) and East Coast Radio. This led to the formation of the JSE-listed, Kagiso Media Limited. Singh provided strategic direction in the following capacities:
Singh resigned his directorships in all radio stations and Kagiso Media in 2006. He is also Chairman of the Cape Town Film Studios which is currently under construction and is scheduled to open at the end of 2009. Singh's expertise in media and entertainment saw him being appointed to the Board of Governors for Media and Entertainment of the World Economic Forum. Singh is also a member of the Forum's Global Agenda Council. He is a former board member of the International Marketing Council Of South Africa and South African Tourism, having served two terms on both these bodies as well as the Los Angeles-based Artists For A New South Africa.
Singh is a board member of the Nelson Mandela 46664 Initiative with Richard Branson, Dave Stewart and Jim Beach and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to the Creative Collective, the body responsible for the organization of South Africa's Ten Years Of Freedom Celebrations in 2004.
Singh is a recipient of the Crystal Award of the World Economic Forum and the Lifetime Founder Member Award of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Both the University of Durban-Westville and the University Of Port Elizabeth have conferred honorary doctorates on him.
Singh was also nominated for the 2006 Black Businessman Of The Year Award by the influential business magazine, Black Business Quarterly.
The 2007 Palm Beach International Film Festival conferred the World Visionary Award to Singh for his contribution to world cinema and his production of socially conscious films.
The South African Film Industry honoured Anant Singh for his significant contribution to the advancement of the industry with the inaugural Golden Horn Award for Outstanding Contributor at the first South African Film and Television Awards in October 2006.
Worldwide Head of Production, for Anant Singh's company Videovision Entertainment has produced more than sixty television projects and more than twenty feature films. Her most recent motion picture credits include The First Grader, the documentary feature My Hunter's Heart, Mr Bones 2: Back From The Past (the follow-up to Mr Bones); More Than Just A Game, the docu-drama focusing on the football league on Robben Island and Darrell James Roodt's Prey.
She also produced the Academy Award® nominated motion picture, Yesterday (2005), starring Leleti Khumalo (Sarafina!); Red Dust, the TRC courtroom drama starring Hilary Swank; the stylish Cape Flats gangster film, Dollars And White Pipes; the record-breaking box office performers Mama Jack and Mr. Bones, starring South Africa's number one boxoffice star, Leon Schuster; The Long Run starring Armin Muehler-Stahl (Shine); The Theory of Flight starring Academy Award® winning Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter; Bravo Two Zero, (as co-producer), a BBC co-production starring Sean Bean, based on Andy McNab's best-selling book of the same title.
Helena executive produced the multiple award-winning comedy drama, Get Real, a British Screen and Graphite Films co-production, which garnered the Best Picture award at the British Film Festival of Dinard in France 1998: Trophee Hitchcock D'OR, Trophee Hitchcock Audience Award, and the Trophee Hitchcock Kodak cinematography Award.
Helena also executive producer of the motion picture Waati, directed by Palme D'Or winner Souleymane Cisse; The Mangler, directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist); Katinka Heyns' Paljas, which was selected as South Africa's first official entry in the 1998 academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film Category and Darrell James Roodt's Sarafina! starring Whoopi Goldberg, which received a Christopher Award.
Helena's associate producer credits include Face, starring Ray Winstone (Nil by Mouth), directed by Antonia Bird (Priest), Darrell James Roodt's Cry, the Beloved Country, starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris, which garnered the New York Christopher Award.
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Translators |
LEON THOMA |
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CHARLIE LUI N!AICI |
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STEVE LUI IKUNTA |
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Chief Facilitator |
LIZELLE KLEINHANS |
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Facilitators |
HENDRIK VAN ZYL |
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CHRISTELLE VAN ZYL |
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ELIZE VAN ZYL |
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ELIZABERTH ARIES |
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MARTHA VAN DER WESTHUIZEN |
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Associate Producer |
TRISHA BIRKETT |
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Production Managers |
NANDA VAN AALST |
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MARIANNE VAN ES |
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Production Co-ordinator |
LAUREN FOSTER |
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Field Support and Sound Recordist |
SWATI THIYAGARAJAN |
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Livelyhood Facilitator |
NANETTE FLEMMING |
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Lion Handlers |
JURG OLSEN |
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KAREN OLSEN |
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BIANEA OLSEN |
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CAITLIN OLSEN |
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Scientific Advisors |
JANETTE DEACON |
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MEGAN BIESELE |
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Snake Handler |
GAVIN FALCK |
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Stunt Co-ordinator |
GIDEON VAN SCHOOR |
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Aerial Photography |
MIKE HOLDING |
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Camera Assistant |
BEN SANDERS |
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Supervising Accountant |
DIXI COLLETT |
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Production Accountant |
LAUREN FOSTER |
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Creative Consultant |
JUNAID AHMED |
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Post Production Supervisor |
CHARMAINE LAUTRĖ |
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Post Production Support |
SIGESHAN REDDY |
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Post Production Intern |
EMMANUEL MUSA |
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Sound Design and Final Mix |
BARRY DONNELLY |
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Colourist |
DONAVAN BUSH |
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Online Editor |
CORNE GILDENHUYS |
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Systems Engineer |
GARETH JONES |
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QC Engineer |
AXEL KOMPAT |
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Post Production Facilities |
WATERFRONT STUDIOS |
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Post Production Facilities coordinator |
BEVIL SCHWARTZ |
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Facilities Coordinator |
BARRY STRICK |
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Foley Artist |
PHILIP OLCKERS |
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Foley Recording Engineer |
BARRY DONELLY |
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Stock Footage |
FOSTER BROTHER LIBRARY |
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Communications & Media Executive |
NILESH SINGH |
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Graphic Design |
ESPRESSO DBN ADVERTISING |
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Production Runner |
JOHN KOMANE |
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Assistant to Anant Singh |
ROSANNA MCKENZIE |
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Assistant to Helena Spring |
NOXOLO DLUNGANA |
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Office Attendant |
LORRAINE ZWANE |
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Production Executive |
ROBERT NAIDOO |
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Production Auditors |
RONNIE GOVENDER |
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RESHMA CHETTY |
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SOHAN BRIJAL |
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KRIVESHAN NAIDOO |
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Auditing Services |
GCABASHE INC |
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Production Services |
VIDEOVISION ENTERTAINMENT |
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FOSTER BROTHER FILMS |
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Legal Services |
ALAN GRODIN – WEISMANN, |
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WOLFF, BERGMAN, COLEMAN, GRODIN & EVALL |
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Insurance |
CGM INSURANCE BROKERS |
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Technical Consultant |
RAJAN PATHER |
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Videovision Entertainment |
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Production Assistants |
AVISHA DHUKRAM |
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BABA MASANORI |
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BONGANI CELE |
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CHARMAINE RAVJEE |
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ELPHAS DLAMINI |
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INDHRANNIE PILLAY |
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RISHANE RAJKOOMAR |
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NOTHANDO NDLOVU |
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ODETTE HOUSTON |
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SHARON RAMIAH |
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TEDDY RAVJEE |
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| THOKO KHANYILE | |
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Synthesizer performed by |
TREVOR JONES |
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Programmer |
NEIL STEMP |
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Music orchestrated by |
TREVOR JONES |
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Music recorded and mixed by |
ANDREW DUDMAN |
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Music recording and mix |
STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY STUDIOS |
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Studio Manager |
GERHARD ROUX |
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Orchestra conducted by |
TREVOR JONES |
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Music performed by |
STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY CAMERATA |
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Concert Master |
SUZANNE MARTENS |
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Music co-ordinator for CMMP |
VICTORIA SEALE |
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Music preparation |
KEVIN SMUTS |
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Music Runner |
CHARL MOSTERT |
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Studio Runners |
ATLAS VAN ZYL |
| WESLEE MOODLY |
The Services Seta (Sector Education And Training Authority)
Cape Mic (The Cape Music Industry Commission)
The Stellenbosch University Music Department
Professor Winfried Ludemann
Peter Theunissen
Peter Martens
Cassandra Bam
The Khomani
Oom Bok
Nannet Flemming
Chief Bobo
Jamy Traut
Rina Van Wyk
Nico Lauw
Francois Du Toit
Ben Du Plessis
Craig Edwards
Catherine Edwards
Greg Edwards
Jan Horn
Michael Daiber
Kuru
Village Of Perspeka
Sasi
Carli Scheepers
Craig Ginsberg
Swati Thiyagarajan
Lauren Foster
Christelle Van Zyl
Louis Herman
Richard Uren
Richard Stegman
Nick Pentz
Garden Route Game Lodge
The /A!Kunta Project is working to assist The San in achieving their long overdue economic emancipation, securing their future, and restoring their dignity and pride of place as the
First Peoples of Southern Africa.
If you would like to assist with these efforts, please visit the project website
Foster Brothers Film
This film was made with the assistance of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa
Produced with the assistance of the Department of Trade and industry South Africa, who does not accept any liability for the content and does not necessarily support such content.
PRODUCED IN SOUTH AFRICA
DISCLAIMER
This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States of America and all countries throughout the world. Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution, duplication of this film or any part thereof
(including soundtrack) will subject the infringer to severe civil and criminal procedures.
© 2010 CREATIVE FILMS (PTY) LTD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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