Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM

The Ju/’Hoansi are a people living in the Kalahari desert for millennia. They feed themselves as hunters and gatherers with minimal contact with outside groups. But not so long ago, hunting wild animals in the bush was banned in Namibia (in Southwest Africa.) Deprived of their livelihood, they were forced to turn to tourism to earn money selling handicrafts and posing for pictures. And the white tourists – known as ghostpeople – flocked in from all over. Later, some members of the village were shown other parts of Namibia, and four of them taken to Europe, a land filled with ghosts.

Ghostland: The View of the Ju/’Hoansi is a new feature documentary that follows the four as they discover Europe, teach people there how to live as they do, and carry some of the wealth and technology they encounter back home to their families in the Kalahari. It is directed by Simon Stadler, a prize-winning filmmaker and known for his background in anthropology.

I spoke with Simon in Germany by telephone from CIUT 89.5 FM studio.

The film opens on Christmas Day at Toronto’s Hot Docs cinema.