Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch (1917-2004) was a filmmaker, anthropologist, storyteller and one of the founders of ethnographical film and Cinema Verité. His films show his strong interest in ritual life and the changes brought about by colonialism in Africa, seen in relation to Europe. Regarding his approach to filmmaking, he states that the relation between reality and fiction is dissolved in the film medium itself. Rouch has received critique for his exoticizing view on Africa. Les maîtres fous is however one of his best known films.