A male diva sings in a countertenor voice while massacring chickens brought to him by his butler, Jean Rouch, until a slave provides proof of his love for the chicken, which he has tucked under his arm. A film-opera based on a poem and musical theme by Rina Sherman.
The third year of the Sigui ceremonies, celebrated every sixty years by the Dogons of the Bandiagara cliffs, Mali, takes place in the village of Bongo.
Every five years, the mask society of the Dogons of Sanga, Mali, organizes a great Dama, a ceremony to end the period of mourning and drive away "the dangerous thing". The Dama shown here is for seven dignitaries, one of whom was called Ambara Dolo.
On the terrace of his regular café haunt in Paris' 14th arrondissement, Jean Rouch regales Noël Simsolo and Jackie Raynal with stories from the life of a self-described "amateur filmmaker".
The first film in Jean Rouch's filmography is not his first film at all. It was edited by a French news company, using images he had shot but organised into a very different sequence from his own. On top of that, it was accompanied by a colonialist commentary said by a sports reporter! As we...
A fortuitous meeting, late one afternoon, in the garden of the Tuileries, of one or two cameras, a tape recorder, and three cameramen/directors, Raymond Depardon, Jean Rouch, and Philippe Costantini.
On a quest to obtain some misdelivered camera batteries, Sam finds himself in a Rotterdam-based sex shop. Here he meets Marty who works there, and this chance encounter turns into a cinematic project between the two. When Sam turns the camera towards this new stranger, the two end up embarking on a...
Beginning of the sextenary festival of the Sigui among the Dogon of the Bandiagara cliff in Mali. This first ceremony takes place at the village of Yougo Dogorou. The men, shaved and dressed in ritual clothes of the Sigui, enter the public square dancing the snake dance. They honor the terraces of...
A young African couple discusses the influence of the West on their traditions. They discuss at length love, polygamy, bourgeois marriage, the contribution of the West and African heritage.
A documentary cycle involving the Rarámuri or Tarahumara people of Northern Mexico. This film addresses rites of winter as well as peyote and bakaka rites. Its commentary, read by Raymonde Carasco and Jean Rouch, is drawn from texts by Antonin Artaud.
Dionysos is a 1984 French comedy film directed by Jean Rouch, starring Jean Monod and Hélène Puiseux. It tells the story of an American drama teacher who after writing a thesis on Dionysus tries to combine Dionysian rites with the work at a car factory, in an attempt to create the world's first...
Sakpata is one of the main deities of the "Vodoun" pantheon in Benin (Dahomey at the time of filming, in 1958). Initiation into the cult of the Vodoun gives rise to a long seclusion in a "convent" where young neophytes learn the sung dances specific to their divinity. The first part of the film...
