Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch.

My first port of call in Ethnographical research for the film is the ethnographer-filmography Jean Rouch described as a “totemic ancestor of factual film”. Rouch worked at a time where the French were still clinging onto their colonies in Africa were much of his work was made. Rouch is one of the first ethnographers to use film for ethnographic research. Rouch comes under constant criticism by Sembene Ousmane, for allegedly observing Africans “like insects”. Throughout his career Rouch has been involved in fierce anthropological debates. Brians Winston states that Rouch, the long term, given the problematic status of the documentary image as evidence in a world of postmodern theory and digital manipulation. This willingness of Rouch to abandon the straight jacket of objectivity could be hos most important legacy to date. I am quite unfamiliar with the works of Rouch and will observe his select filmography to see whether his films have the same conventions as Brice Parry’s tribe and see whether I can make a true parody of Anthological film. I will be aiming to break some of these conventions in my subversion of the film.

Having Watched “Moi un Noir”, in French I came to conclude cinematic conventions were very similar to those of Bruce Parry. Though content is different and Rouch favours the continual shot when it comes to dialogued interviews.

I am also to research ethnographical film maker Jean Rouch about introducing a camera into a space without changing the consciousness of those being filmed.

Jean Rouch has been credited with changing the face of ethnographical cinematic approaches, his films cross between fiction and documentary, and he is credited with pioneering the jumpcut.

As mentioned previously the father of ethno fiction and many similar colonial era anthropologists were rejected by African ethnographers and film makers as it gives an inaccurate representation of life in Africa.

My own experience of colonialist attitudes is diverse. In my first year at the University of the West of England we studied colonialist attitudes to race especailly towards those from the african diaspora, and how ethnic pygmys were displayed were displayed in Zoo’s until the 1920’s in some parts of the world. Also bear in mind the slave trade had only ended in places like Brazil in 1888 were they were part of chattel slavery.

When I was younger I had an almost unhealthy obsession with the Asterix and Tintin books. It was the early Tintin books that caused uproar and controversy as the Africans which the Author Herge claimed was an “error of his youth”.

I was lucky to have a copy in color as my Mum was brought up in Barcelona were it was available in Spain. It was banned in the United Kingdom 1991 and the original still isn’t available in color. So colonial attitudes are a far cry from how anthropologists work today though teher is still a sense of the unknown and primitiveness prelavent.

I was told Jean Rouch is quite dissimilar from the styles of Parry’s tribe:

Jean Rouch said on his filmmaking

“Personally. I am violently oppresses to film crews. My reasons are several. The sound engineer must fully understand the language of the people he is recording. It is thus indispensable that he belong to ethno group being filmed and that he be trained in the details of his job.

Besides with the present techniques used in direct cinema the film maker must be the cameraman. And the ethnologist alone in my mind is the one who knows when where and how to film i.e. do the production . Finally and this is doubtless the decisive argument, the ethnologist should spend quite a long time in the field before undertaking the least bit of filmmaking. This period of reflection of learning of mutual understanding might be extremely long but such as stay is incomparable with the schedules and stays of the technicians.”

This approach to filming would in theory be the best approach anyone could have towards getting a completely accurate ethnographic film, yet wholly impractical for a BBC Production or University Project. Rouch spent a near lifetime in Africa whilst Parry spends a month ata time with his Tribe, though after his team of researchers have been their previously.