The Mad Masters

Filmstill The Mad Masters

The Mad Masters

Les maîtres fous
Jean Rouch
Retrospective 2024
Documentary Film
France
1955
28 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

This still controversial ethnofiction is one of Jean Rouch’s most famous films. It stages followers of the Hauka cult in Ghana incorporating their colonial masters to marching music imported from Europe. The disturbing work was released at the same time as the first Leipzig festival year, but would have gone beyond the scope of the “Culture and Documentary Film Week”. This was because the festival did not adopt an international focus until 1960. Nevertheless, Rouch floats through Leipzig’s festival history as an inspiring genius: He is regarded as the founder of Cinéma-Vérité, a documentary concept that was pursued with great interest in Leipzig, and he irritated the colonial gaze by encouraging African filmmakers to determine the images of their continent themselves.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jean Rouch
Cinematographer
Jean Rouch
Editor
Suzanne Baron
Producer
Les Films de la Pléiade
Sound
André Cotin
Narrator
Jean Rouch