Chronicle of a Summer Essay Example for Free

Chronicle of a spend EssayEthno parable is a term that is used to provide a new contemporary sound to an older terminology (neologism) particularly dealing with docufiction (a term coined from the combination of the nomenclature documentary and fiction painting). In visual anthropology, ethnofiction refers to ethnography or the genre of writings which gives an elucidating study or point of view regarding human societies. Predominantly, the results of the holistic research method atomic number 18 presented by ethnography and back be used in ethnofiction.In addition to this, ethnofiction also consists of both gainal and diachronic connections. A lot of ethnic anthropologists and ethnologists are using ethnofiction in their works and consider it as the essence of discipline. denim Rouch, the most renowned ethnologists, specific every last(predicate)y considered as the father of ethnofiction was able to understand and disc all over that in devising events which are regist ered by the camera. Consequently, the camera in this scenario or scene becomes a participant. Due to practice, research and documentaries are lavished with the idea of using cameras.This is in accordance to Rouchs aim of furthering his goals, objectives and introduction of the actor as a tool in the moving picture or in Rouchs research. According to Brian Quist, through jean Rouch a new genre (of filmmaking) was born. Jean Rouch is an innovative French director who definitely fathered the ordure called cinema-verite. Jean Rouchs style of filmmaking is a spontaneous one that blurred between or consists of educational, ethnographic and fiction film. Rouch filmed in many tungsten Afri bathroom countries where he was able to train and support actors, cameramen, technicians and directors. hotshot of his apprentices was Safi Faye. The African filmmakers that Jean Rouch promoted did non in the end become avant-garde cinema-verite directors, largely because they could not chip in to take ten or twenty hours of rushes to produce a 45-minute feature, but he may sop up had an effect in other ways. When he set out to produce history he adopted a version of ethnographic realism. In 1975 he filmed a story situated in the late 19th century, Babatou , les trios conseils, with a crew of technicians from Niger and on the basis of a script written by the historian Boubou Hama.Following his work habits, he developed only minimally the dialogue, which the actors fleshed out by extemporization on location. The team travelled around to find a suitable location. The problem was to find places that had not changed in a hundred years, without corrugated metal roofs or plastic containers. Without further safeguards this solution is illusory, because the sun-baked carcass houses of the savannah rarely survive one hundred years and what appears old now may be an environment radically transformed during the colonial period.Jean Rouchs search still reveals more interest for hist orical authenticity, compared to the shortcuts that Kabore takes, but is inspired by the same supposition that in Africa the actual looks like the historical once you remove from it what is ostensibly European origin (Bickford-Smith and Mendelsohn 20). Jean Rouchs aesthetic is guided by the effort to produce ethnographic estrangement. Rouch celebrated film Les Maitres fous (1955), filmed in Ghana among migrant workers from Niger who abide a possession ritual, is very much a display of radical difference, even if recorded with fancy and respect.As such, it goes very much against the grain of how most West African intellectuals would like to see their heathen heritage presented to outsiders, the main reason, I think, why many of them do not like Rouchs films. West African films look different and show the culture in a different way. There are statelier in rhythm and style and less adventurous in form. They also present their characters as good-hearted and not wild. Cinema-verite i s translated as Film truth in French. Cinema-verite is as style of filmmaking that uses the camera as a protagonist, as a catalyst for action (Kahn 185).In addition to this, it is derived from Dziga Vertovs Kino-pravda a documentary film series in the Soviet Union of the 1920s, wherein it was grand that the film audience realized it was watching a film, not reality. The term was coined by Jean Rouch together with the help of Edgar Morin while making Chronique dun ete (1961) with pertly developed, portable cameras and Nagra sound recorders. In this film interview, subjects of Rouch and Morin get to watch and comment on footage of themselves.The term cinema-verite also implies that the filmmakers try to avoid manipulating documentary truth, but it has often been confused with Direct Cinema which is a movement which emphasized objectivity over reflexivity of cinema-verite. The term verite is used in Hollywood to denote a style of shooting to achieve the effects of veracity and immedi acy or the jerky, hand-held camera and amyloidal out-of-focus texture (Barnard et al. 377). In the other(a) 1960s, technical advances made it possible for small crews to produce synchronous-sound location films.The equipment encourage some filmmakers to record actions and events as detached observers, naively assuming that they were not significantly influencing the actions being followed. The alleged(prenominal) American direct cinema of Richard Leacock, Robert Drew, the Maysles brothers (Albert and David), and the others helped to define this kind of documentary. Eventually, it led to what is known today as observational-style film, which became so attractive for some ethnographic filmmakers (Ruby 12).Jean Rouch on the other hand, having founded the cinema-verite, obviously adopts the opposite approach different the previously mentioned ethnographers of filmmakers. Jean Rouch aim in cinema-verite is to bind the subjects reveal their culture. The use of the camera as a charact er in the films he made was due to the fact that he felt that the presence of the camera could provoke a cine trance for his subjects. In Chronicle of a Summer (1961), the filmmakers combined the ideas they admit borrowed from Flaherty with those of Soviet film theorist and practitioner Dziga Vertov.Rouch brought the cameras and his filmmaking style into Paris streets for impromptu encounters in which the filmmaking process was often a part of the film, with filmmakers and equipment in frame. Consequently, the actions of Jean Rouch and his works lead to an immediate notice or significant fascinate to the films of French New Wave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Chris marker, whose film Le Foli Mai is a direct repartee to Chronicle of a Summer.Rouchs influence in the United States was not immediate contrary that of the France because so few of his films were accessible (Ruby 12). Rouch has persistently continued with his style and to develop his collaborative approach over a forty-year period in a number of films made with West Africans. Some criticized certain early efforts, Such as Les Maitres Fous (1955), as ethnocentric because of an assumed overemphasis on the bizarre, but others celebrated it as authorized surrealist film (Ruby 5).However, his intentions was to produce a shared anthropology in which those in front of the camera shared the causation with the director. This idea reached an apex with his so-called ethnographic science fiction films, such as Petit a Petit (1968), Cocorico, Monsieur volaille (1983) and Madame lEau (1992). Rouch is not alone in France in his adventurous experiments in collaboration. In 1964, George Rouqier produced a film about a year in life on a farm as lived by his relatives.In his film, the subjects were asked to enact their lives which is kind of ethnodocudrama. Although it was screened at the 1947 Venice Film Festival as a French form of neorealism, it has been virtually ignored by the United States anthropolog ists. Jean Rouch is also not alone when it comes to his interests in button the limits of documentary realism. For showcase, the United States anthropologist Robert Ascher experimented with drawing directly on film to produce a cameraless interpretation of a myth which is considered to be a technique found in experimental art films.As with Rouch, his efforts have been ignored. Stoller contends that Jean Rouch is a premature postmodernist. However, it should be considered that Rouchs work in multivocality and reflexivity has been ignored by the so-called crisis of representation and writing culture folks. Their lack of understanding of Rouchs many contributions to the postmodern debates that have obsessed anthropology in recent years perhaps the best example of how marginalized ethnographic film is to the mainstream of cultural anthropology.Other anthropologists who disagree with Rouchs filmmaking style and contributions simply do not see his work as contributing to their interests (Ruby 13). From his works and style in enthnofiction, as find in his Chronicle of a Summer, a certain concept of ethnofiction can be identified. However, before reaching that fruitful conclusion or concept, Jean Rouch had to perform several tests or experiments in filmmaking, particularly exploring the subject matter or aspects of ethnofiction. found from his works and experiments, five characteristics can be deduced.First, is the thorough ethnographical research (Quist 9) which can be observed in his films such as Les maitres fous and Batille Sur Le Grand Fleuve. Second, ethnofiction consists of truthful circumstances and accurate corroboration (Quiest 9). Third, ethnofiction utilizes the cinemas need for story as well as dramatic curve (Quiest 9) which can be observed in Jean Rouch films such as The Lion Hunters. Fourth is the characteristic, on Rouchs term, cine-trance which have been previously mentioned or discussed.Commonly, cine-trance is referred to as improvisation. The fifth characteristic of ethnofiction, and probably the most important part of the films and considerations of Jean Rouch is participant reaction which can be observed in Chronicle of a Summer (Quist 9). After the establishment of the five characteristics of ethnofiction, there was a need for Jean Rouch to develop a single film that would encompass all these five characteristics of ethnofiction. Jean Rouch pursued an ethnofiction film that would incorporate all these characteristics.The film noted in Quist analysis is Jaguar which was completed and released in 1967. This film became the classic example for ethnofiction film because it encompassed or included all the five characteristics of ethnofiction perfectly. This comprehensive ethnofiction film instantly gained fame and became renowned not only in Africa but also to film festivals worldwide (Quist 10). Jean Rouchs perseverance heretofore does not stop at the success of Jaguar. He continued honing his skills until the five char acteristics of ethnofiction became very known with him and his films.He continuously endeavoured in order to improve the cinema-verite which he and Morison founded. He also continued making films to influence other filmmakers and to introduce different or varieties of culture from the point of view of its subjects. Jean Rouchs perseverance, efforts and success are very remarkable that he definitely lives to the expectations of those who look up to him. His influences and his contributions to the filmmaking industry really justifies Jean Rouch as father of ethnofiction.Works CitedBarnard, Tim, Timothy Barnard, and Peter Rist. South American Cinema A Critical Filmography, 1915-1994. USA First University of Texas Press Printing, 1996. Bickford-Smith, Vivian, and Richard Mendelsohn. Black and White in Colour African archives on Screen. UK James Currey Ltd, 2007. Kahn, Hillary E. Seeing and Being Seen The Qeqchi Maya of Livingston, Guatemala, and Beyond. USA The University of Texas Pr ess, 2006. Quist, Brian. Jean Rouch and the Genesis of Ethnofiction. Long Island University. Ruby, Jay. Picturing socialisation Explorations of Film and Anthropology. USA The University of Chicago, 2000.