Jean Rouch Movies

A portrait of Zomo, the second of Damouré Zika’s many children. Employed at the zoo of the National Museum of Niger in Niamey, he offers...

Filmed in Wanzerbé, Niger, this short documentary records ritual, market exchange, and ceremonial practices, documenting divination,...

Rites of winter, rites of peyote. A creative documentary based on texts by Antonin Artaud read by Jean Rouch, and the words of the last...

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

In Mali, women's funeral rite takes place in the village of Bongo, in Dogon country.

A Nigerian traditionalist who draws his inspiration from bird warbling to compose music to accompany his verse chronicles.

Scene of possession during a ceremony to appeal for rain in Niger.

Jean Rouch’s camera follows his friend, filmmaker/actor/critic Farrokh Ghaffari, as he walks and talks us through the famous Shah Mosque in...

This film, made in one afternoon, is an "inspired promenade," the discovery of an exhibition with improvised text and commentary. Five shot sequences...

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

Funeral rituals for the traditional leader Moro Naba of the Mossi at Ougadougou, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). Election ceremonies for his...

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution, a group of Haitians in Paris undertake a voodoo ritual in front of Les Invalides, to...

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...

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

Not much film stock, an inspired camera, a meditation on time, period songs: using contemporary images, shot at a time when the broken city was...

On the terrace of his regular café haunt in Paris' 14th arrondissement, Jean Rouch regales Noël Simsolo and Jackie Raynal with stories...

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...

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