L'enigma

Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch was born on May 31, 1917 in Paris. He graduated in Literature, in Civil Engineering and eventually he graduated from the Institute of Ethnology. During the war he conducts ethnographic surveys in Nigeria and Senegal. Between 1946 and 1947 he made the descent of the Niger in pirogue, in the company of Jean Sauvy and Pierre Bonty. Meanwhile, with his 16mm camera, he shoots ceremonies and rites, creating a fascinating document of the highest ethnographic value and recording the transformation of a continent from colonialism to independence. Au pays des images noirs (1947) is the first of a long series of short films, made with the cinéma-direct technique. This technique involved the use of the machine by hand and recording of the sound in direct contact in order to capture the real in its immediacy. This choice, in its demystification of the technical instrument - which demonstrates the concrete possibility of making a film without being subject to the limits of heavy technology and a large team - has had a major influence on the Nouvelle Vague. With his method Rouch realizes other important films such as Moi un Noir (1957) on the young people who flock to Treichville (Côte d'Ivoire) in search of work, La pyramide humaine (1958), on the relations between black and white students in Abidjan high school , Chronique d'un été (1960), a film about the Parisians, filmed with Edgar Morin, Chasse au lion à l'arche (1964) on a particular type of hunting in Côte d'Ivoire, and Gare du Nord, an episode of Paris vu par (1966) filmed in real time, which tells of a abandonment, a meeting, a race along Paris and a suicide. The method of Rouch should not be confused with the concept of "life caught suddenly". Rouch causes the protagonists of his films with the camera, forcing them to become characters and to interpret stories that they themselves have sometimes invented. In this way fiction and improvisation are transformed into tools to arrive at "truth". Hence the rejection of traditional editing, formal neglect, the pre-eminence of contents. In 1984 he presented at the Venice Film Festival Dyonisos: an ironic representation of the reality of an anthropologist divided between industrial civilization and primitive worlds. From 1947 to today, Rouch has shot over one hundred and fifty films.

Alberto Chiantaretto

Alberto Chiantaretto (1947) is member of the KWK Kinowerke cooperative and he lives and works in Turin. He worked as directors on the following products of KWK: Tolleranza un decimo (1978, 16 mm, black and white, 35 min.); Sei cervi nel parco del re (1979, 16 mm, colour, 25 min.); Officine Savigliano (1979, 16 mm, black and white, 30 min.); La ceramic di Castellamonte (1980, 16 mm, colour, 17 min.); I maestri mobilieri di Saluzzo ( the same); L’oro di Valenza Po (the same); Tutto occupato (1980, 16 mm, colour, 55 min.); Come uno di noi (1981, 16 mm, colour, 52 min.). There are also a few work in progress: Venerdì sera, lunedì mattina (16 mm, colour, 90 min.) for RAI-DSE and Lavoro e salute (temporary title, 16 mm, colour, 30 min.) for SIP.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala

FILMOGRAFIA

Tolleranza un decimo (1979, con D. Pianciola), Tutto occupato (1980, con D. Pianciola), Come uno di noi (1981, con D. Pianciola), Some of Us Looking at the Stars (1982, con D. Pianciola), Biella e l'industria tessile (1983), Venerdì sera, lunedì mattina (1983, con D. Pianciola), Fabbrica e salute (1984), L'enigma (1986, con J. Rouch, M. di Castri, D. Pianciola).

Marco Di Castri

Marco Di Castri (Milan, 1952) fuses his interest in cinema with a special focus on the world of contemporary art. In 1984 this led him to make extensive use of live-action shooting in artistic settings. This experience evolved into the project named Cataloga - a publishing house specialized in video-catalogues about artists, exhibitions and museum. Between 1985 and 1992 this project allowed him to work with internationally famous artists as well as to make the first video-catalogue in Europe, for the Centre C. Pompidou, in 1988. From 1992 to 1996 he worked freelance as director and cinematographer and continued his musical activity with the group Dedalus. Complete retrospectives of the Cataloga films were presented at the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Paris, 1994) and at the Festival of Art Film (Asolo, 1996).

FILMOGRAFIA

Notes sur Jean Rouch (1985), Enigma (1986), Now I Know Snow (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1986), Joseph Beuys Olivestones (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1986), Acta Sanctorum (1987), L'abito della Rivoluzione (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1987), Daniel Buren: del colore, dell'architettura (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1988), Michelangelo Pistoletto: I Have a Mirror (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1988), Tinguely par Jeann Tinguely (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1988), Magiciens de la terre (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1989), Donald Jud al Castello di Rivoli (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1990), Claudio Parmiggiani: una scultura (co-regia Gianfranco Barberi, 1991), Scalabrun (1995), La vita in faccia (1995), Ugo Nespolo in pillole (1996).

Daniele Pianciola

Daniele Pianciola was born in Turin in 1947. He is member of the KWK Kinowerke cooperative and he lives and works in Turin. He worked as directors on the following products of KWK: Tolleranza un decimo (1978, 16 mm, black and white, 35 min.); Sei cervi nel parco del re (1979, 16 mm, colour, 25 min.); Officine Savigliano (1979, 16 mm, black and white, 30 min.); La ceramic di Castellamonte (1980, 16 mm, colour, 17 min.); I maestri mobilieri di Saluzzo ( the same); L’oro di Valenza Po (the same); Tutto occupato (1980, 16 mm, colour, 55 min.); Come uno di noi (1981, 16 mm, colour, 52 min.). There are also a few work in progress: Venerdì sera, lunedì mattina (16 mm, colour, 90 min.) for RAI-DSE and Lavoro e salute (temporary title, 16 mm, colour, 30 min.) for SIP.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala

FILMOGRAFIA

Tolleranza un decimo (1978, con A. Chiantaretto), Torino tra le due guerre (1978), Some of Us Looking at the Stars (1982, con A. Chiantaretto), Un cuore d'acciaio (1982-83), Venerdì sera, lunedì mattina (1983, con A. Chiantaretto), Innovazione tecnologica e ricerca scientifica (1984), Metropoli/computer, lavoro distrutto/lavoro possibile (1984), La scienza e la colpa (1985), L'immagine trovata (ipotesi per un identikit) (1985), Knots/Nodi (1985), L'enigma (1986, con J. Rouch, A. Chiantaretto, M. di Castri).