
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