Jean Rouch
| Jean Rouch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jean Rouch 31 May 1917 Paris , France |
| Died | 18 February 2004 (aged 86) Birni-N'Konni , Niger |
| Cause of death | Automobile Accident |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Filmmaker , Anthropologist |
| Years active | 1947-2002 |
| Notable work |
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| Spouse(s) | Joselyne Lamothe (? - 18 February 2004) |
| Parent(s) | |
| Relatives |
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Jean Rouch (French: [ʁuʃ]; 31 May 1917, Paris – 18 February 2004, Niger) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.
He is considered to be one of the founders of cinéma-vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction. He was also hailed by the French New Wave as one of theirs. His seminal film Me a Black (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard said of Rouch in the Cahiers du Cinéma (Notebooks on Cinema) n°94 April 1959, "In charge of research for the Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Man") Is there a better definition for a filmmaker?" Along his career, Rouch was no stranger to controversy.
He began his long association with African subjects in 1941 after working as civil engineer supervising a construction project in Niger. During his work in Niger Jean Rouch came to experience the rituals and ceremonies of the Songhay. He documented the events and sent his work to his teacher Marcel Griaule, who encouraged Rouch to continue his work with the Songhay and go even deeper into his studies. However, shortly afterwards he returned to France to participate in the Resistance. After the war, he did a brief stint as a journalist with Agence France-Presse before returning to Africa where he became an influential anthropologist and sometimes controversial filmmaker.
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