Jay Ruby on Rouch

Ruby discusses the myriad ways in which Rouch changed visual anthropology. However, his influence was drastic on film in general. He put synch sound in the hands of such able-bodied filmmakers as Godard. He created cinema verite, which is the combination of sharing the filming process with others while constructing filmic truth. This led to discourse on the influence of film on people. Does film alter the way people act, creating ethno-people?

Rouch was not interested in making pretty pictures. He only cared about the content of the films and the method of their creation. This may have been good for Rouch but I, see obvious merit in making the powerfully stimulating information present in Rouch’s films into pretty pictures. It makes the information accessible to a wider audience, if only because people wont turn it off or fall asleep by the films end. Like the Natural History museum’s desire to make exhibits that will draw crowds, Ethnographic film could influence a much wider audience than it is today. It has the potential to make a lot more money than it is today.

Faye Ginsburg on Rouch

Faye Ginsbergs piece on Jean Rouch highlights his final visit to NYU in 2000. She speaks of her own experience with Rouch and his films. He was a serious source of inspiration for her. She speaks of the reactions of young audiences with this infectious character who seemed just as inspired as she was. Although I have become more fascinated with Rouch’s method more than his films, I have found myself telling friends about him, and especially with respect to one quote that Ginsberg presents in this piece. “Films should beget more films.” In one project that I am working on, we are wrestling with whether we want to use a previously recorded song, which was the inspiration for much of the film or to create an original soundtrack inspired by the tune. The previously recorded song fits beautifully with the visuals and cues, but I think we have pretty much decided to use an original soundtrack. Our reasons for this stem from Rouch’s idea. Perhaps it is for our own egos, but we want to create something new and distinctly us (films created completely within our art collective), while not fearing being too much like what we are influenced by.

Jean Rouch Tribute

Loizo: Jean Rouch Tribute

Jean Rouch was an influential filmmaker for many reasons. He is most influentially know for, “his dedication to the promotion of film as a medium for ethnology; his stylistic inventiveness; his radical view of documentary, and his personal politics” (Lorizos, 45). He saw his camera as more than a ‘passive recording instrument’ and an important role in his investigations and research. The term Roach uses himself to describe his research style is the term, “provacation.”

To other’s Rouch is described as a ‘radical empiricist’ who finds importance in fieldwork and time. Rouch found importance in establishing long-term relationships and while filming the Dogon and Songhap People, Rouch visited them every year for 50 years. His groundbreaking filming decisions and techniques made those who viewed his films question what they were seeing and provoked much response and emotion. Those who were filmed went back and forth between acknowledging the camera and ignoring it, questioning whether or not Rouch had hired actors or was filming real people. This filmmaking process was called ‘informant-feedback method’ and involved collaboration between Rouch and those being filmed.

‘Chronique d’un ete’ was one of Rouch’s best-known works and greatly influenced documentary filmmakers. The film touched on real life and real experiences and appears to be brilliantly unrehearsed. There are three aspects to this film that made it innovative and unique. First the sound equipment became mobile and flexible so that people were able to be filmed in their natural habitats and did not have to haul themselves down to a recording studio. Secondly, the technique of ‘jump-cutting’ became possible and in Rouch’s words, “we realized we could cut in the middle of a shot and even shorten phrases” (Lorizos, 59). Thirdly, “there was a clear acceptance of the Film-makers as agents, as producers of the reality being filmed” (Lorizos, 59).

In a conversation between Rouch and Marceline this change and monetous period in filmmaking is illustrated. In the interview, Rouch asks Marceline why he is hesitant and nervous and Marceline responds by saying, “I’m intimidated because at a given moment you have to be ready…” Rouch responds by saying, “If you say something you don’t like, it can always be cut out.” This was an unbelievable change from the way films were edited before and hard for some to believe.

Rouch was a pioneer and inspirations for many filmmakers that followed him. Lorizos sums up his work in four ideas; “Collaboration with the subjects, Bringing their voices into the films, allowing their dreams and fantasies to take shape and adding a mode of documentary which was not documentation- realism” (Lorizos, 64). He was highly respected, looked up to and continues to be a great inspiration and teacher for ethnographic filmmakers today.