Jean Rouch’s Chronicle of a Summer – Paris 1960 (1961, with Edgar Morin) helped launch both cinéma verité and the French New Wave. A seminal figure in ethnographic film, Rouch took his camera to the streets of Paris during a period of political turmoil and the Algerian War to search for truth through interactions with Parisians of various ethnic and social backgrounds. Rouch’s earlier, controversial Les Maîtres Fous (1955) documents a trance ritual in West Africa which incorporates and parodies aspects of British colonialism. It has both been accused of racism and lauded as an expose of colonialism.
Sunday, March 26, 1995
Origins of Cinéma Verité
Two by Jean Rouch
San Francisco Art Institute