Being introduced to Jean Rouch and his work through the words of his students and admirers provide a rich background after watching Les Maitres Fous. Starting to film in the 1950s he was less concerned with rigid boundaries between the subject and the film maker. Faye Ginsburg credits him with developing a new type of ethonographic and documentary film style. His style attempted to integrate the routine and the unusual of a society and share that within the magic medium of film. She also credits him as leveraging his "informants" not just as translators, but as friends, cultural experts and colleagues. I can imagine how this type of respectful relationship with local residents was prosperous in a way that would be unique to any film maker or anthropologist. The discussion would be fruitful far beyond any "translator for hire" relationship, by the off camera storytelling, personal sharing and exchange of ideas.
Rouch did much of his own filming and was intentional in keeping a sort of unpolished look to his films. Jay Ruby comments that Rouch films are more implicit than explicit, he expects the audience to figure out for themselves what they are seeing on the screen. Like our class discussion evidenced this can leave a wide spectrum of understanding across viewers. As a viewer our individual experiences influence our reaction an interpretation of the images we have viewed. To name just a few of the converging elements......our own on societal, spiritual, educational, artistic exposure and experiences meld together to create our unique individual understanding to what our eyes are viewing.
Given that Rouch preferred to bring his camera right into the heart of the action, less concerned with tripods and "fly on the wall" filming, I think he would fully accept the spectrum of responses from various pools of viewers. His films are credited as having created this genre called "ethnofiction" to reflect his blending of the art and science in storytelling. He seems to have welcomed the influence and artistic inspiration that would come from fully collaborating with African friends and colleagues in the making of his films. I imagine that his openness and creativity as an ethnographer would allow him to be equally as intrigued in the variation of audience interpretation than concerned with giving them fixed answers or study guides.
No comments:
Post a Comment