Circumcision

Rites and operation of the circumcision of thirty Songhai children on the Niger. Material of this film has been used to make "Les Fils de l'Eau".

1949-01-01 | en

Do Chile za zatměním Slunce

2021-02-25 | cs

Pam Kuso Kar (Breaking Pam's Vases)

In February 1974, Pam Sambo Zima, the oldest of the priests of possession in Niamey, Niger, died at the age of seventy-plus years. In his backyard, the followers from the possession cult symbolically break the dead priest's ritual vases and cry for the deceased while dividing up the clothes of the divinities.

1974-01-01 | fr

Drums from the Past

"Tourou et Bitti", an eight minute documentary concerning a ritual in Niger, is yet another example of Rouch's excellence in creating documentaries which surpass the conventional documentary format. Just as frightening and fascinating as "Les maîtres fous", this one goes straight into the roots of ancient African cultures, in which music has an hypnotic effect, being at the same time an exorcism and a public show. Both the female and the male dancers are almost deities about to be unleashed... Spectral and humanitarian.

1971-01-01 | fr

Atilogivu: The Story of a Wrestling Match

While no wrestling is actually depicted, Atilogivu: The Story of a Wrestling Match documents gymnastic dancing to drum and flute music of the Ibu people, east of the River Niger.

1982-01-01 | en

Niger Festivals: December 1961 - Niger Independence Days

Commemorative celebrations of the independence of the Republic of Niger filmed in December 1961 and 1962.

1962-01-01 | en

Season of Dying Water

Shot in and around Yakutsk, in a remote region of Siberia, this film wrestles with the complex realities of a people and place facing continual, rapid transformation under Russia’s drive for resource extraction.

2022-11-10 | ru

Photo Souvenir

At a dusty crossroads in the desert city of Niamey, Niger, a crippled beggar is sitting in his wheelchair. He is Philippe Koudjina, who was once a successful photographer. In 1960s during the euphoria that followed independence, young people danced the twist and rock ‘n’ roll. Koudjina took snapshots and made a good living. Now, his negatives are decaying in a rusty cabinet. These snapshots now have artistic value. In Paris and New York, large sums are paid for photography like this. There is hope for Koudjina as two French connoisseurs are now trying to launch his work on the art circuit.

2006-01-01 | fr

L'Afrique et la recherche scientifique

This documentary offers an overview of French scientific research in Africa French scientific research in Africa: hydrology, botany, biology oil palm and coconut cultivation, industrial sea fishing and and urban planning. Film montage taking stock of scientific research research in Africa, mainly in the fields of hydrology hydrology, botany, biology and agriculture. The film is a compilation of extracts from several short films made by Jean Rouch in Mali, Niger and Côte d'Ivoire between 1962 and 1963: Abidjan, port de pêche, Le Mil, Le Cocotier and Le Palmier à l'huile. l'huile.

1964-01-01 | fr

Horendi

The title of this film translates literally as 'to put on a hori,' a hori being the Songhay term for ceremony of festival. Here it is used to refer to a ganandi, literally 'to make dance' This film concerns two women whom the zima [priest] had diagnosed some months before as being ill through possession by spirits. In the meantime, their families have gathered together the resources to pay for the musicians, dancers, and the priest himself to put on an initiation dance lasting seven days This is a film of documentation, simply recording various moments in the progress of the ceremony, without any form of explanation, neither in intertitle cards nor in voice-over. (Paul Henley, The Adventure of the Real)

1972-01-01 | fr

Há Sempre Alguém Que Te Ama

Filmed immediately after the end of the civil war in Angola, Há Sempre Alguém Que Te Ama records the return of Pocas Pascoal to the country where she was born, in an attempt to reconstruct the episode that, in 1975, led to the capture of the director along with her mother and sisters. An intimate documentary about memory and self-(re)construction.

2004-10-14 | en

Hampi

A ritual vase, the hampi, is placed in the center of the Musée de plein air de la République du Niger in Niamey, during a ritual ceremony featuring possession dances. With this film, Jean Rouch continues his ethnological and cinematographic study of Songhay ritual objects. He demonstrates that, in a particular context, the transfer of a hampi vase to a museum requires the organization of a ritual ceremony to obtain the gods' approval. At the time, however, reservations about filming a possession dance for the opening of a shrine in a museum made the move "questionable from a museological point of view".

1962-05-07 | fr

Zomo et ses frères

A portrait of Zomo, the second of Damouré Zika’s many children. Employed at the zoo of the National Museum of Niger in Niamey, he offers us a tour, showing us the animals he takes care of. Then, when the work is finished, he invites us to an impromptu concert by “Jeunesse Gawey,” the “popular music” orchestra he forms with his brothers and sisters, who sing and dance for us pretty songs about their lives, their family, and Nigerien youth.

1975-01-01 | fr

Dutch Types

An overview of women in Holland and the surrounding countryside.

1915-03-02 | da

Yenendi de Ganghel (Rain Dance at Ganghel)

Lightning struck the hut of a Fulani shepherd near a village of settled fishermen, Ganghel, in Niger. A yenendi, a purification ceremony to obtain "water from the sky but not fire from the sky", is organized, with Sorko priests, ritual musicians and dancers, and the faithful from Niamey. The musicians call on Dongo, god of storms, and his brother Kirey, god of lightning. To the rhythm of the orchestra, a man goes into a trance, becoming Dongo's horse and at the same time the riding genie. Then a woman is possessed by Kirey. When the riding gods have mastered their horses, the gods visit the men. Dongo purifies the lightning-struck land and the oldest fisherman prepares the purification vessel, addressing Dongo.

1968-01-01 | fr

ハネムーン Hanemun Honeymoon

A honeymoon in Japan gets examined microscopically through comics, cards, magazines, and more in this delightful animated film.

2018-04-07 | en

With a View to Realism: The Making of Man on the Roof

A documentary by Ronny Svensson and Markus Stromqvist on the making of Bo Widerberg's 1976 movie Man on the Roof, featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew

2004-01-01 | sv

Celtic Legends: Irish Legends

This revealing program shows that the search for the Celtic Gods of Britain is an extremely difficult task. Their origins are shrouded in mystery, but they are kept alive in a series of enduring stories. This program presents many of these stories, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

1999-01-01 | en

2Doc: What Are We Doing?

In 2022, 92% of those affected encountered aggression or violence. Frans Bromet portrays six influences who encounter violence while carrying out their work. The violence with which the actual consequences are, leaves personal physical, especially mental, traces.

2023-09-04 | nl

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung

Miu Kam-fung, who plays the film’s titular character, addresses her identity as housewife and actress in Patrick Tam’s commentary on the dangers of rampant consumerism, seen as a defining moment for contemporary Hong Kong. In its studied references to Godard, Tam’s work buzzes with modern life—supermarkets, billboards, television—and juxtaposes these references with questions about marital infidelity, middle-class morality, and even political sentiment.

1976-11-04 | cn