The Missing Pieces of Jean Rouch’s Les Maitres Fous (1955)
Delving Deeper:
The Missing Pieces of Jean Rouch’s Les Maitres Fous (1955)
Untrained as a filmmaker and educated in the field of ethnography, Jean Rouch spent much of the 1940’s and 1950’s exploring the colonialized areas of West Africa. He spent his time immersing himself in African culture, eventually taking a camera along to film what he witnessed. The footage he collected would later be edited in to several short amateur pieces. Over the next several years, Rouch would emerge as an unsuspecting rebel in the filmmaking world. His films became highly revered for their fearlessness and unprecedented subject matter. He struck a unique balance between interesting film and his ethnographic roots. His ethnographic films of the 1950’s helped to set the stage for this repute, one of the most significant from this time being Les Maitres Fous (1955).
In Les Maitres Fous, or “The Crazy Masters”, Rouch explores the sacred ceremonies of the Hauka sect. The religion of the Hauka, literally meaning “The New Gods”, was widespread in West Africa from the 1920’s until the late 1950’s. When Rouch filmed this piece in 1954, there were at least 30,000 practicing Hauka in the city of Accra in the Gold Coast (now known as Ghana). Rouch was asked by two Hauka priests to record their annual ceremony. During this ritual, which took place in a rural area several hours from the city of Accra, the Hauka became possessed by spirits associated with the West: the governor general, the engineer, the doctor's wife, the wicked major, and the corporal of the guard. The Hauka movement was a marvel of the African colonial era and Rouch aimed to capture it through his lens. Unfortunately, his lens is that of a man born and raised in France. He is a product of the West. Although he does his best to capture an honest, impartial, and in depth look at this culture, his lens is undoubtedly tinted by his own. He is an outsider to the Hauka, an observer. He spends the entire film making observations
The Missing Pieces of Jean Rouch’s Les Maitres Fous (1955)
Untrained as a filmmaker and educated in the field of ethnography, Jean Rouch spent much of the 1940’s and 1950’s exploring the colonialized areas of West Africa. He spent his time immersing himself in African culture, eventually taking a camera along to film what he witnessed. The footage he collected would later be edited in to several short amateur pieces. Over the next several years, Rouch would emerge as an unsuspecting rebel in the filmmaking world. His films became highly revered for their fearlessness and unprecedented subject matter. He struck a unique balance between interesting film and his ethnographic roots. His ethnographic films of the 1950’s helped to set the stage for this repute, one of the most significant from this time being Les Maitres Fous (1955).
In Les Maitres Fous, or “The Crazy Masters”, Rouch explores the sacred ceremonies of the Hauka sect. The religion of the Hauka, literally meaning “The New Gods”, was widespread in West Africa from the 1920’s until the late 1950’s. When Rouch filmed this piece in 1954, there were at least 30,000 practicing Hauka in the city of Accra in the Gold Coast (now known as Ghana). Rouch was asked by two Hauka priests to record their annual ceremony. During this ritual, which took place in a rural area several hours from the city of Accra, the Hauka became possessed by spirits associated with the West: the governor general, the engineer, the doctor's wife, the wicked major, and the corporal of the guard. The Hauka movement was a marvel of the African colonial era and Rouch aimed to capture it through his lens. Unfortunately, his lens is that of a man born and raised in France. He is a product of the West. Although he does his best to capture an honest, impartial, and in depth look at this culture, his lens is undoubtedly tinted by his own. He is an outsider to the Hauka, an observer. He spends the entire film making observations