Jean Rouch

Vocation

Notable

French filmmaker and anthropologist, considered to be one of the founders of cinéma-vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction. He was also hailed by the French New Wave as one of theirs. His seminal film "Me a Black" (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard. Throughout his career, Rouch was no stranger to controversy. He would often repeat, "Glory to he who brings dispute." He died in an automobile accident on 18 February 2004, 16 kilometres from the town of Birni-N'Konni, Niger. Link to Wikipedia biography