Germaine Dieterlen
2021
Sigui synthèse, l'invention de la parole et de la mort
Jean Rouch, Germaine Dieterlen
Sigui 1967-1973: invention de la parole et de la mort is a never-before-seen synthesis of the roaming ceremony of the Dogon people living in Mali, the Sigui. It is celebrated for seven years every sixty years, and it is to commemorate the first forefather’s death and funeral and the bestowal of speech to humans.
Sigui synthèse, l'invention de la parole et de la mort
Le vieil Anaï
Jean Rouch, Germaine Dieterlen
In 1972, the Dogon of the Bandiagara cliff in Mali celebrated the funeral of Anaï Dolo, head of the Bongo Masks Society, who died at the age of 122. On this occasion, the large Bongo mask, is erected and for twenty days, family members, elders, men from neighbouring villages purify the village.
Funeral at Bongo: Old Anaï, 1848–1971
Funerailles A Bongo: Le Vieux Anai
Jean Rouch, Germaine Dieterlen
This documentary, which won the prestigious FIPRESCI award at the Venice Film Festival in 1979, follows the funeral rituals for a Dongo tribesman who died in Bandiagara in the mid-1970s. His death was especially significant, and the funeral correspondingly elaborate (taking many years to prepare), because he was born in 1849, and was well over 120 years old at the time of his death. Anthropologist Jean Rouch was especially notable for his anthropologically-informed African film features and for the many decades he spent training and encouraging African filmmakers. He was able to go into places that few had heard of, and even fewer were allowed to enter, in order to make memorable documentaries.
Funeral at Bongo: The Death of Old Anai
Batteries Dogon, éléments pour une étude des rythmes
Jean Rouch, Gilbert Rouget
The young goat herders from the cliff of Bandiagara practice on the stone drums of their ancestors. An ethnomusicological film experiment describing the subtle plays of the right and left hand of Dogon drummers.
Dogon Drums, Elements of a Study in Rhythm