Jean Rouch with Robert Gardner
The celebrated film director Jean Rouch has been a true pioneer when it comes to combining film with the science of cultural anthropology. Ever since his first visit to Niger in 1941, he has been filming indigenous African people. Rouchs recordings on the African continent are of high ethnographic value and are the commence of visual anthropology. This film is an extended interview byRobert Gardner, also widely known for his work in the visual anthropology, with the experienced filmmaker and anthropologist. The interview is being alternated with excerpts from Rouchs films, like a clip from the movie Les Maitres Foux.
Scientific Interest
Cultural anthropology is a social study and is known for its qualitative research method called ethnography. Even though the ethnographic information mostly consists of written data, cultural anthropologists have often been using other data like photographs. The commence and development of visual anthropology during the 1960s has introduced anthropological images and films as a main form of data collection, representation and distribution.
About Jean Rouch
Since 1941, the Frenchman Jean Rouch has been making ethnographicfilms on the African continent in the countries such as Niger, Cote dIvoir and Mali. As a filmmaker and anthropologist , Rouch played an important role in the origin of visual anthropology . His work is not only of scientific value but it has also been of great influence to the development of cinematorgraphic style and technique in the 60s and 70s. Rouch was also cofounder of an international documentary film festival called the Cinéma du Réel in Paris, France. He passed away in 2004.