Jean Rouch
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. 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.
92 directing credits · 41 acting credits
Directing · 92
Chronicle of a Summer
1961
Gare du Nord
1965
That Tender Age
1964
I, a Negro
1959
The Human Pyramid
1961
Six in Paris
1965
Hommage à Marcel Mauss. Germaine Dieterlen
1977
Moro Naba
1958
Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! Mr Chicken
1974
Pam Kuso Kar (Breaking Pam's Vases)
1974
Sigui 1972: The Loincloths of Yamé
1972
Germaine et ses copains
1996
Ispahan: A Persian Letter (The Chah Mosque at Ispahan)
1977
Cousin, cousine
1987
Hampi
1962
L'Afrique et la recherche scientifique
1964
The Ordinary Madness of a Daughter of Ham
1986
Mammy Water
1953
Cemeteries in the Cliff
1951
Mya - la mère
1970
Monsieur Albert, prophète
1963
Funeral at Bongo: The Death of Old Anai
1979
Enigma
1986
Giraffe Football or “The Alternative”
1973
Les cocotiers
1963
Badye, the Storyteller
1977
Les pêcheurs du Niger
1962
Dogon Drums, Elements of a Study in Rhythm
1966
Little by Little
1970
Horendi
1972
The Fifteen-Year-Old Widows
1964
The Goumbé of the Young Revelers
1966
Boukoki
1973
Drums from the Past
1971
Battle on the Great River
1950
Boulevards d'Afrique
1989
Niger Festivals: December 1961 - Niger Independence Days
1962
Sigui 1968: The Dancers of Tyogou
1968
Le Rêve plus fort que la mort
2002
Yenendi de Ganghel (Rain Dance at Ganghel)
1968
Sigui 1970: The Clamours of Amani
1970
Damouré Speaks About AIDS
1992
La royale goumbé
1958
The Rainmakers
1951
Baby Ghana
1957
The Mad Masters
1955
Urbanisme africain
1962
Ayorou Singing Stones
1968
Circumcision
1949
Couleur du temps. Berlin, Août 1945
1987
Sigui 1967: L'enclume de Yougo
1967
The Lion Hunters
1966
Announcement
1997
Initiation into the Dance of the Possessed
1948
Jaguar
1967
Ciné-mafia
1980
A Friendly Handshake
1997
Sigui Synthesis: The Invention of Speech and Death
1981
Daouda Sorko
1967
Liberté, égalité, fraternité, et puis après...
1990
Dionysos
1984
Germaine chez elle
1994
Hombroï
1948
Sigui 1969: The Cave of Bongo
1969
Les gens du mil
1951
I'm Tired of Standing, I Lie Down
1997
The Punishment
1962
Rose et Landry
1963
In the Land of the Black Magi
1947
The Sons of the Water
1959
Zomo et ses frères
1975
The Burial of the Hogon
1973
The Magicians of Wanzerbé
1948
Le palmier à l'huile
1963
Funérailles au Ghana
1960
Babatou, Three Pieces of Advice
1976
Brise-glace
1990
Brise-glace : Bateau givre
1987
Funeral Rites for Women in Bongo
1973
Le mil
1962
Sigui 1971: The Dune of Idyeli
1971
Sigui 1973: The Canopy of Circumcision
1973
The Dama of Ambara: To Enchant Death
1974
Makwayela
1977
VW-Voyou
1973
Une sortie de novices de Sakpata
1958
Architects of Ayorou
1970
Abidjan, port de pêche
1962
Un lion nommé l'Américain
1972
Madame l'eau
1993
Ciné-Portrait of Raymond Depardon
1983
Margaret Mead: A Portrait By a Friend
1978
Acting · 41
Samedi soir
1971
Sodankylä Forever
2010
Chronicle of a Summer
1961
Cinématon
1978
Cinéma! Cinéma! The French New Wave
1992
Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema
2011
Son of Gascogne
1995
The Lovely Month of May
1963
Pierre Fatumbi Verger: Messenger Between Two Worlds
1998
World Without a Game
1966
Ciguri - Tarahumaras 99 - Le dernier chaman
1999
The Doll
1962
Ispahan: A Persian Letter (The Chah Mosque at Ispahan)
1977
Mon père c'est un lion - Jean Rouch pour mémoire
2002
La Nouvelle Vague par elle-même
1964
Maya Deren, Take Zero
2012
Outlaw
2025
Encountering Jean Rouch
2003
Freddy Buache, le cinéma
2012
The Mad Masters
1955
Jean Rouch, des mensonges plus vrais que la réalité
2004
Rouch in Reverse
1995
Work(ing Together) in Process
—
Samba the Great
1977
Portrait de Jean Rouch
2004
Ciné-mafia
1980
A Friendly Handshake
1997
Civilisation: L'homme et les images
1967
Germaine chez elle
1994
My Conversations on Film
2013
The Sons of the Water
1959
Rouch's Gang
—
The Dreamed Films
2010
An Egg with No Shell
1992
Letter to Jean Rouch
1992
L’Enigma di Jean Rouch a Torino - Cronaca di un film raté
2017
Ciguri – Tarahumaras 98 - La Danse Du Peyotl
1998
Nouvelle Vague : El cine sin dogmas
2000
Jean Rouch: First Film 1947-1991
1991
Cinéma, de notre temps: Mosso, mosso (Jean Rouch comme si...)
1999
Ciné-Portrait of Raymond Depardon
1983