Jean Rouch Movies

Directed by Jean Rouch.

On the Niger River, the island of Ayorou is home to a “singing stone,” an imposing boulder rock covered with cupules. It is used as a...

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...

Life in a community of Harist disciples in the village of Bregbo, Côte d'Ivoire, under the aegis of their "prophet" Alberto Atcho. 50 km from...

Sakpata is one of the main deities of the "Vodoun" pantheon in Benin (Dahomey at the time of filming, in 1958). Initiation into the cult of the...

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

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

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

A film about a lion.

It's the final of the giraffe football world championship. The 403 and the 504 are in the final. The referee gives the instructions and the cars rush...

A film by Jean Rouch.

Rites and operation of the circumcision of thirty Songhai children on the Niger. Material of this film has been used to make "Les Fils de l'Eau".

Dogon funerary rites in the village of Ireli at the foot of the Bandiagara cliffs, Mali.

Directed by Jean Rouch.

The young goat herders from the cliff of Bandiagara practice on the stone drums of their ancestors. An ethnomusicological film experiment describing...

The documentary Rouch's Gang follows the film crew and provides a glimpse behind the scenes as Jean Rouch and his four friends from Niger make their...

Every five years, the mask society of the Dogons of Sanga, Mali, organizes a great Dama, a ceremony to end the period of mourning and drive away "the...

A young African couple discusses the influence of the West on their traditions. They discuss at length love, polygamy, bourgeois marriage, the...