"Some remedies that we still do not know." The ethnofiction (or "cine-transe") is a genre of film said to be created by the anthropologist, ethnologist and well-known French film director Jean Rouch (Chronicle of a Summer), his first being the 1955 half-hour plus short but harrowing feature entitled 'Les Maîtres Fous', or 'The Mad Masters'. But how does Rouch go about in filming the madness therein? Let's take a look.
The subject of the film: the Hauka movement in Accra which, according to some anthropologists was a form of resistance that began in Niger, but had spread to other parts of Africa. According to anthropologists, this ritual, though historic, was largely done to mock their authoritarianism by stealing their powers, trying to extract their life forces and not trying to emulate Europeans. Upon arriving in this certain district in Africa, we see the everyday men, working in jobs such as salt marketers, grass cutters, gold miners, etc. What thus occurs is the eventual eponymous actions carried out by these people. We, following Rouch in turn following these men into a bald spot in the jungle after a work day as he captures every intense frame of this dark pageant performed before our very eyes known well among the Hauka tribe: men begin foaming at the mouth, consume dog flesh and burn themselves with torches all while having summoned the souls of long-dead explorers who had traveled to Niger back in the late nineteenth century, some possessed by the "spirits" of that certain party, made up of a general, his wife, the guard corporal, a truck driver etc. The film was so controversial upon release that it was notably banned first in Niger, and then in British territories including Ghana. Today, the film still contains the raw power to disturb and does seem to reveal, sadly, the ugly side of the modern world. Deep in its intensity and unashamed of taking the bold risks Rouch did in capturing/showing the extreme, 'Les Maîtres Fous' is a fundamental revolution of a mortifying experience while also remaining a powerful study of robust visual anthropology.
The subject of the film: the Hauka movement in Accra which, according to some anthropologists was a form of resistance that began in Niger, but had spread to other parts of Africa. According to anthropologists, this ritual, though historic, was largely done to mock their authoritarianism by stealing their powers, trying to extract their life forces and not trying to emulate Europeans. Upon arriving in this certain district in Africa, we see the everyday men, working in jobs such as salt marketers, grass cutters, gold miners, etc. What thus occurs is the eventual eponymous actions carried out by these people. We, following Rouch in turn following these men into a bald spot in the jungle after a work day as he captures every intense frame of this dark pageant performed before our very eyes known well among the Hauka tribe: men begin foaming at the mouth, consume dog flesh and burn themselves with torches all while having summoned the souls of long-dead explorers who had traveled to Niger back in the late nineteenth century, some possessed by the "spirits" of that certain party, made up of a general, his wife, the guard corporal, a truck driver etc. The film was so controversial upon release that it was notably banned first in Niger, and then in British territories including Ghana. Today, the film still contains the raw power to disturb and does seem to reveal, sadly, the ugly side of the modern world. Deep in its intensity and unashamed of taking the bold risks Rouch did in capturing/showing the extreme, 'Les Maîtres Fous' is a fundamental revolution of a mortifying experience while also remaining a powerful study of robust visual anthropology.