Jean Rouch Movies

Filmed in Firgoun, Niger, the film documents an initiation ceremony in which a young Songhay woman undergoes ritual preparation for the dance of...

Lightning struck the hut of a Fulani shepherd near a village of settled fishermen, Ganghel, in Niger. A yenendi, a purification ceremony to obtain...

This portrait of the French film theorist and avant-garde director Jean Epstein (1897-1953) concentrates on the period when he filmed in Brittany,...

Jean Rouch’s camera follows his friend, filmmaker/actor/critic Farrokh Ghaffari, as he walks and talks us through the famous Shah Mosque in...

Funeral rituals for the traditional leader Moro Naba of the Mossi at Ougadougou, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). Election ceremonies for his...

Shows independence festivities in Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, which on 6th March had become the first African colony to gain independence.

Rain rituals with possession dances among the Songhay and Zarma of Simiri, Zermaganda, Niger. Dry Season: The village of Simiri; water carriers, the...

The seventh year of the Sigui ceremonies, celebrated every sixty years by the Dogons of the Bandiagara cliffs, Mali.

On a quest to obtain some misdelivered camera batteries, Sam finds himself in a Rotterdam-based sex shop. Here he meets Marty who works there, and...

On the terrace of his regular café haunt in Paris' 14th arrondissement, Jean Rouch regales Noël Simsolo and Jackie Raynal with stories...

A Nigerian traditionalist who draws his inspiration from bird warbling to compose music to accompany his verse chronicles.

This film, made in one afternoon, is an "inspired promenade," the discovery of an exhibition with improvised text and commentary. Five shot sequences...

A film by Jean Rouch.

A short film about two mothers from Niger and how they care for their children.

The story of an American drama teacher who after writing a thesis on Dionysus tries to combine Dionysian rites with the work at a car factory, in an...

A woman's funeral in Ghana.

Directed by Jean Rouch.