Jean Rouch (; 31 May 1917 – 18 February 2004) was a French

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

. He is considered one of the founders of cinéma vérité in France. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker, for over 60 years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of ''shared anthropology''. Influenced by his discovery of

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style: ethnofiction. The

French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...

filmmakers hailed Rouch as one of their own. Commenting on Rouch's work as someone "in charge of research for the Musée de l'Homme" in Paris, Godard said, “Is there a better definition for a filmmaker?".

Biography

Rouch began his long association with Nigerien subjects in 1941, when he arrived in

Niamey Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. As the Niamey Urban Community (, CUN), it is a Regions of Niger, first-level division of Niger, surrounded by the Tillabéri Region, in the western part of the country. Niamey lies on the Nige ...

as a French colonial hydrology engineer to supervise a construction project in

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

. There he met Damouré Zika, the son of a Songhai traditional healer and fisherman, near the town of Ayorou, on the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

. After ten Sorko workers were killed by lightning at a construction depot Rouch supervised, Zika's grandmother, a famous possession medium and spiritual advisor, presided over a ritual for men, which Rouch later claimed sparked his desire to make ethnographic film. He became interested in Zarma and Songhai ethnology, filming Songhai rituals and ceremonies. Rouch sent his work to his teacher

Marcel Griaule Marcel Griaule (16 May 1898 – 23 February 1956) was a French author and anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people of West Africa, and for pioneering ethnographic field studies in France. He worked together with Germaine ...

, who encouraged him to continue it. Shortly afterward, Rouch returned to France to participate in the Resistance. After the war, he did a brief stint as a journalist with

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

before returning to Africa, where he became an influential anthropologist and sometimes controversial filmmaker. Zika and Rouch became friends. In 1950, Rouch started to use Zika as the central character of his films, registering the traditions, culture, and ecology of the people of the

valley. The first film in which Zika appeared was ''Bataille sur le grand fleuve'' (1950–52), portraying the life, ceremonies and hunting of Sorko fishermen. Rouch spent four months travelling with Sorko fishermen in a traditional pirogue. His early films, such as ''Hippopotamus Hunt'' (''Chasse à l'Hippopotame'', 1946), ''Cliff Cemetery'' (''Cimetière dans la Falaise'', 1951), and ''The Rain Makers'' (''Les Hommes qui Font la Pluie'', 1951), were traditional, narrated reports, but he gradually became more innovative. Rouch made his first films in

: ''Au pays des mages noirs'' (1947), ''Initiation à la danse des possédés'' (1948) and ''Les magicians de Wanzarbé'' (1949), all of which documented Songhai spirit possession rituals and the Zarma and Sorko peoples living along the

. He is generally considered the father of Nigerien cinema. Despite arriving as a colonialist in 1941, Rouch remained in Niger after independence and mentored a generation of Nigerien filmmakers and actors, including Zika. During the 1950s, Rouch began to produce longer ethnographic films. In 1954 he cast Zika in ''

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

'' as a young Songhai man traveling for work to the Gold Coast. Three men dramatized their real-life roles in the film, and became the first three actors of Nigerien cinema. Zika helped reedit the film, originally a silent ethnographic piece, into a feature-length movie somewhere between documentary and fiction (

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary film, documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or ciné ...

), and provided dialogue and commentary for a 1969 release. In 1957 Rouch directed ''Moi, un noir'' in Côte d'Ivoire with the young Nigerien filmmaker Oumarou Ganda, who had recently returned from French military service in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. Ganda became the first great Nigerien film director and actor. By the early 1970s, Rouch, with cast, crew, and co-writing from his Nigerien collaborators, was producing full-length dramatic films in Niger, such as ' (''Little by Little'' : 1971) and ' ("''Cocka-doodle-doo Mr. Chicken''": 1974). Many African filmmakers rejected Rouch's and others' ethnographic films produced in the colonial era for distorting reality. Rouch is considered a pioneer of

Nouvelle Vague The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of i ...

and

visual anthropology Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnography, ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians ...

, and the father of ethnofiction. His films are mostly ''cinéma vérité'', a term Edgar Morin used in a 1960 France-Observateur article referring to the Kino-Pravda newsreels of Dziga Vertov. Rouch's best-known film, one of the central works of the Nouvelle Vague, is ''

Chronique d'un été ''Chronicle of a Summer'' (French original title: ''Chronique d'un été'') is a 1961 French documentary film shot during the summer of 1960 by sociologist Edgar Morin and anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch, with the technical and aesthetic c ...

'' (1961), which he filmed with sociologist Edgar Morin and portrays the social life of contemporary France. Throughout his career, he reported on life in Africa. Over the course of five decades, he made almost 120 films. Rouch and

Jean-Michel Arnold Jean-Michel Arnold, (April 5, 1938 – September 4, 2019) was General Secretary of the Cinémathèque Française, Vice President of UNESCO's IFTC (International Council for Film Television and Audiovisual Communication), founder of the Cinéma du ...

founded an international documentary film festival, the Cinéma du Réel, at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1978. In 1996, following the election of Nelson Mandela, Rouch visited the Centre for Rhetoric Studies at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

at Philippe-Joseph Salazar's invitation. He gave two lectures on his work and shot some footage in the Black townships with his assistant Rita Sherman. Rouch died in a car accident in February 2004, 16 kilometres from

Birni-N'Konni Birni-N'Konni (also Birnin-Konni or shortened to Konni/Bkonni) is a town in the Tahoua Region of Niger, lying immediately north of the Niger-Nigeria border, border of Nigeria and west of seasonal Maggia River. It is an important market town and t ...

, Niger. In her 2017 essay "How the Art World, and Art Schools, Are Ripe for Sexual Abuse", contemporary artist Coco Fusco details an early encounter with Rouch: "I was sexually accosted by the renowned ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch, who is credited with having invented a better way to look at Africans."

Main films

* 1947: ''Au pays des mages noirs (In the Land of the Black Magi)'' * 1949: ''Initiation à la danse des possédés (Initiation into Possession Dance)'' * 1949: ''La Circoncision (The Circumcision)'' * 1950: ''Cimetière dans la falaise'' * 1951: ''Bataille sur le grand fleuve (Battle on the Great River)'' * 1953: ''Les Fils de l'eau'' * 1954: ''Mammy Water'' * 1954: '' Les maîtres fous (The Mad Masters)'' * 1957: ''Baby Ghana'' * 1958: '' Moi, un noir (Treichville) , a Black (Treichville)' * 1961: '' La pyramide humaine (The Human Pyramid)'' * 1961: ''

(Paris 1960) (Chronicle of a Summer)'' — co-directed with Edgar Morin * 1964: ''La punition, ou les Mauvaises rencontres unishment, or: Bad Encounters' * 1964: ''Gare du Nord'' (segment of ''Paris vu par'' — aka: ''Six in Paris'') * 1965: ''La chasse au lion à l'arc ion Hunting with Bow and Arrow(aka The Lion Hunters)'' * 1966: ''Sigui année zero'' * 1966: ''Les veuves de 15 ans (The 15-Year-Old Widows)'' * 1967: ''Sigui: l'enclume de Yougo'' * 1967: ''Jaguar '' * 1968: ''Sigui 1968: Les danseurs de Tyogou'' * 1969: ''Sigui 1969: La caverne de Bongo'' * 1969: ''Petit à Petit'' he title translates in English to "Little by Little"; in the film "Petit à Petit" is the name of an import-export company in Niamey, Niger* 1970: ''Sigui 1970: Les clameurs d'Amani'' * 1971: ''Sigui 1971: La dune d'Idyeli'' * 1971: ''Tourou et Bitti, les tambours d'avant (Tourou and Bitti: The Drums of the Past)'' * 1972: ''Sigui 1972: Les pagnes de lame'' * 1973: ''Sigui 1973: L'auvent de la circonsion'' * 1974: '' Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet '' * 1976: '' Babatu'' * 1977: '' Ciné-portrait de Margaret Mead'' * 1977: ''Makwayela (1977)'' * 1979: ''Les funérailles à Bougo, le vieil Anaï'' * 1980: "Funeral at Bongo: Old Anaï (1848-72) ersion with English language narration by Rouch* 1984: '' Dionysos'' * 1986: " Folie Ordinaire d'une fille de Cham " co-directed with Philippe Constantini avec Jenny Alpha et Sylvie Laporte * 1990: ''Liberté, égalité, fraternité et puis après (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity—And Then What?)'' * 2002: ''Le rêve plus fort que la mort'' co-directed with Bernard Surugue

Bibliography

* Rouch, Jean. ''Ciné-Ethnography'', edited and translated by Steven Feld. University of Minnesota Press, 2003. * Rouch, Jean. ''La Religion et la Magie Songhay''. Presses Universitaires de France, 1960. 2nd revised edition published by Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1989.

Notes

References

Biography
by Ben Michaels
Jean Rouch, filmmaker
– article by Brenda Baugh
"Verite Pioneer Jean Rouch"
by Eugene Hernandez at ''indieWIRE''

by Amie Karp at ''Journal of Undergraduate Research''

by Barbara Bruni
Jean Rouch
– Article by Matt Losada at
Senses of Cinema
'
On the Pale Fox, trail part 1 of 5 tracks of the Pale Fox in divination plots
– film series about the Dogon myth of the Earth creation
''Sur les traces du renard pâle, en pays Dogon''
(On the trail of the Pale Fox, in Dogon country – English subtitled film)

External links