Friends, Fools and Family

Anne Mette Jørgensen
Berit Madsen
2007
59 minutes

Friends, fools and family. Rouch's collaborators in Niger

In 2003, two Danish anthropologists and filmmakers went to Niger to make a film with Rouch's friends. Their film was going to be an exploration of the methods of the group.

Worldwide, Jean Rouch is known to many as a French anthropologist and innovative filmmaker. Much of his work is linked to the birth of cinema verité. However, Rouch's fifty-year involvement with a particular group of people in Niger shines a more personal light on his work - one of friendship and collaboration. Together with this group, Rouch made numerous ethnographic films and developed their own cinematographic style. These films have been termed 'ethno-fictions'. In 2003, two Danish anthropologists and filmmakers went to Niger to make a film with Rouch's friends. Their film was going to be an exploration of the methods of the group. It became a story about how this unique collaboration came to change the lives of both the filmmaker and his friends.

 

Anthropologist: 
Anne Mette Jørgensen
Berit Madsen
Suggested readings: 
Jørgensen, Anne Mette. "Filmmaking as Ethnographic Dialogues: Rouch's Family of 'Scoundrels' in Niger." Visual Anthropology, Jan/Feb2007, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p57-73, 17p
Africa: