Jean Rouch. Films under Discussion

Jean Rouch made his films not for but with others: submitting his shots to discussion with the people he was filming with, before editing them or continuing shooting. This programme reviews the influence of this collaborative technique, in which the film brings its own discussion and is conceived to generate dialogues and encounters: from his first short in which he filmed a ritual Dogon, when his approach was still distant rather than participative, to the documentary by Anne McIntosh, a friend of his, bringing together scenes filmed between 1978 and 1980: Rouch’s conversations with other filmmakers and friends, discussions about his methodology with students at Harvard, reflections on war… The film by Filipa César picks up Rouch’s dialogues in the present tense: after showing La Pyramide Humaine to a group of Israeli and Palestinian students, she films their different viewpoints and reflections on their own conflict. [Video screening]

Cimetières dans la falaise, J. Rouch, 1951, 18’
Conversations With Jean Rouch, A. McIntosh, 2004, 36’
The Four Chambered Heart, F. César, 2009, 29’