Friday,
June 11 ~ Sunday, June 13
In
Memoriam: Jean Rouch (1917-2004)
 Jean
Rouch was born in Paris and studied civil engineering before
turning to film and anthropology in response to his experiences
in West Africa during World War II. He was to become one of
the most influential figures in documentary and ethnographic
filmmaking, completing more than one hundred films in West Africa
and France. Though Rouch is perhaps best known for the landmark
film Chronicle of a Summer, and for the inspiration
that it offered to the French New Wave filmmakers and the direct
cinema movement, his most striking contributions to film remain
more than seventy ethnographic films made in West Africa. Rouch
has produced films in Ghana, Niger, Mali and Upper Volta, ranging
from straightforward portrayals of extraordinary ritual events,
such
as
Les Maitres fous, to "collective improvisations"
such as Jaguar. In the West, Rouch's distinctive vision
of the cultures of West Africa has influenced students
of
anthropology, of ritual, and of Africa. But his influence has
been significant on the African continent as well, where he
consistently attempted to introduce film technology and to train
technicians as he worked.
Friday,
June 11 at 7:00
PM
Chronicle
of a Summer
dir.
Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, France,
1961, Beta SP, 85 mins, b/w, French w/ English subtitles
Introduced
by Sam DiIorio
Paris.
The summer of 1960. While war rages in Algeria
and pre-independence Congo
seethes with violence,
Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin send two women out to
interview random people in the street. From a simple starting
question – “Are you happy?” – Chronicle of a Summer
delves deeper and deeper into the lives of its characters. They
include Marceline, a Holocaust survivor; Angelo, who works grueling
shifts in a Renault factory; Landry, a student from the Ivory
Coast; and Marilou, a young,
beautiful and deeply depressed Italian immigrant. Chronicle
of a Summer is a true landmark in film history and the
progenitor of the direct cinema movement with Rouch and Morin
among the first filmmakers to use hand held, sync sound, 16mm
equipment.
Sam
DiIorio is Assistant Professor of French at Hunter College in
New York City.
He
has written extensively on directors Jean Rouch, Chris Marker,
and Jean-Luc Godard and his current research deals with the
concept of everyday life in France.
Saturday,
June 12 at 7:00
PM
Jaguar
dir.
Jean Rouch, Niger/Ghana/France, 1954-67, 16mm, 92 mins, color,
French
w/ English subtitles
Part
documentary, part fiction, and part reflective commentary, Jaguar
tells the story of three young men from the Savannah of
Niger who leave their homeland to seek wealth and adventure
on the coast and in the cities of Ghana.
This film is the story of their travels, their encounters along
the way, their experiences in Accra
and Kumasi,
and, after three months, their return to their families and
friends at home.
preceded
by
Les
Maitres fous (The Mad Masters)
dir.
Jean Rouch, Ghana/France, 1954, 16mm, 24 mins, color, French
w/ English subtitles
Les
Maitres fous is about
the annual religious ceremony of the Hauka— a sect which was
widespread in West Africa
from the 1920s to the
1950s. During this filmed ritual, which took place on a farm
a few hours from the city of Accra,
the Hauka entered trance and were possessed by various spirits
associated with the Western colonial powers: the governor general,
the engineer, the doctor's wife, the wicked major, the corporal
of the guard.
Sunday,
June 13 at 12:00
PM
Musso-Musso:
Jean Rouch, as if...
dir.
Jean- André Fieschi,
France,
1998, Beta SP, 73 mins, color, French w/ English subtitles
While
working on a new film project, Jean Rouch talks about his life
and work with his old friends Damouré and Tallou. In the
spirit of Rouch's own films, Fieschi's portrait interrogates
the frontier separating documentary and fiction.
preceded
by
In
the Land of the Black Magi
dir.
Jean Rouch, Niger, 1947, 16mm, 12 mins, b/w, w/ English narration
With
Rouch’s Magical Hair (1946) no longer extant, In
the Land of the Black Magi offers us the first filmic
document of his engagement with the indigenous people of West
Africa. In Black Magi,
Rouch’s camera captures the powerful spirits inhabiting the
villages and countryside of Niger
as fisherman hunt hippopotamus
with a harpoon by the banks of the Sorko.
Sunday,
June 13 at 2:00
PM
The
Human Pyramid
dir.
Jean Rouch, Ivory Coast, 1959-61, 16mm, 90 mins, color, French
w/ English subtitles
Introduced
by Ivone Margulies
 This
"documentary fiction" explores questions of race and
identity among black and white high school students in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast. Rouch worked closely with students from different
racial and economic backgrounds (including Landry and Nadine
from Chronicle of a Summer) to create a powerful commentary
on integration and interracial relationships that blended fictional
scenarios with the real
lives of the film's participants.
Ivone Margulies
teaches in the Film and Media Studies Department
at Hunter College and is the author of Nothing Happens:
Chantal Akerman's Hyperrealist Everyday and the editor of
Rites of Realism: Essays on the Corporal Camera.
Tickets are $6.00
for general admission, $5.00 for I House members, students and
seniors. Available one hour before showtime at the International
House box office.
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