An Exploration of Maya Deren’s Haitian Footage and Jean Rouch’s 'Les maîtres fous'

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between Jean Rouch’s Les maîtres fous (1955) and Maya Deren’s Haitian film footage (1947-54), two almost contemporaneous projects involving the filming of possession dances – of the African Songhay in Rouch’s case, and of the Haitian Voudoun cult in the case of Deren. Both filmmakers were pioneers who took an innovative approach in their filming of these ceremonies, using lightweight technical equipment and involving themselves directly in the ritual (each in a different way), to produce a respectful and poetic representation that was free of the prejudices and the colonial superiority prevalent among Western filmmakers until that time. While Deren was unable to give her material a final form due to a plethora of ethical and cinematographic obstacles, Rouch would successfully bring ethnography and cinema together in his work, thereby establishing a new documentary sub-genre, known as ethnofiction.