Rouch response

Jean Rouch was deeply interested in experimentation which is evident in his films. But experimentation involves a certain level of risk. As Faye Ginsburg points out Rouch was a risk taker who never played it safe. He filmed in Africa from the end of colonization through the "heady period of independence". Independence involves a huge amount of risk. The risk of independence was something that Rouch could empathize with since he was such a risk taker himself.
Rouch could also empathize with the idea of ritual and total absorption into the ritual. Jean-Paul Colleyn notes that once he began filming, his personality changed and he became lost in the ritual of filmmaking.
For the most part, when Africans are portrayed as "the other", it is usually in the context of rural societies and traditional cultures. Rouch was more interested in culture change and the modern Africa including migrant workers in cities and those marginalized by urban life. In a way he is taking the idea of "the other" a step further. For most westerners, being African is enough to be categorized as "the other" yet the migrant workers are considered "the other" within African urban society.
In many cases, films were shot in the morning, processed in the afternoon and screen in the evening. This did not leave a lot of time for editing. The lack editing emphasizes Rouch's idea about improvisation since he was more interested in the content.
Mishaps did not stop Rouch from filmmaking. When he lost his tripod is a river, he continued filming by holding the camera on his shoulder. This was part of his style of improvisation. This technique became normative in future filmmaking.
Even if Rouch's intent was to produce a dramatic documentary rather than a documentary to actually document history or culture, it seems some of his movies (e.g. Jaguar) may serve to do just that. As Rouch notes in Jean Rouch Talks About his Films to John Marshall and John W. Adams, after African independence many records, photos, etc were destroyed and lost forever.