Jaguar

Jean Rocuh's "Jaguar" was a film like i have never seen before. Orignally I had wanted to simply place it not in etnography but in the genre of Journey documentary. The only reason I am so quick to want to place it into any category is the fact that I am currently enrolled in two different film classes, strictly titled Histories of Documentary in which we go over guidlines as to what exactly makes a documentary film
. As well obviously stating, that I am also enrolled in an Ethnographic film class. Because of this distinct seperation between the genres and what consittues each film, I always automatically want to be able to categorize a film as ethnographic or documentary. However, reguardless I realized that it can be both, or it is simply plain put, up to the viewer to determine what THEY themselves consider the movie, reguardless of literary work written on it. I think this is the best way to seperate movies, according to your own take on it,
...

Back to Jaguar, I thought it was extremely interesting how Jean Rouch showed he journey these different men took. It was the classic scenario of going away a boy and coming back a man. I thought it was unique in that Rouch showed each individual journey. This demonstrates Rouch's desire to focus on the individual rather than the whole tribe or clan.
Another complex and interesting approach Rouch took was the showing of the three men encountering an entirely new and different tribe. He shows the complications involved in trying to look at a tribe objectively. The three men kept yelling, "They are naked! They are naked!" This was an interesting because it showed how shocking and foreign a goup of people can be even to the people you yourself, as a film maker are studying.


I think what stood out the most in this film is that the three men were narrating. There was no overcasting shadow of the voice of the ethnographer. I thought it was interesting that we as viewers were allowed to hear the boys go over teh story, after the fact, almost as a reflection of their journey.

I think this is such an extremely and useful approach to ehtnographic film making because like the approach the McDougalls have taken in their films, its allowing the people to speak in the film. It allows the people to tell their stories without the editing or interpretation of it by the ethnographer. It gives those people their voice.

This film incorporated a lot of elements into it. It was a mixture of things in terms of what it represented and what it showed. It was a type of journey documentary, a reflexive docuemtnary, observational, and as well a genre that is fictional ethnography.