settima

jeanrouch

Moi, un noir [I, a Negro] (Jean Rouch, 1958)

Oct

16

National Eddie Day

Moi, un noir (1958)

A young woman looks over her shoulder, smiling. DP: Jean Rouch.

Some of the leads play out their hopes and dreams and are named after famous actors from Western films. Petit Touré is #EddieConstantine.

Grands soirs & petits matins [May Days] (William Klein, 1978)

Jun

6

National Higher Education Day

Grands soirs & petits matins (1978)

Students discussing at the Sorbonne. DPs: William Klein & Bernard Lutic.

A ripple went through France in the early months of 1968. It started when the Communist and socialist party joined forces in an attempt to remove President De Gaulle from office. A month later, students at Nanterre (a Parisian university) teamed up with poets, musicians and small leftist groups to discuss class discrimination and political bureaucracy on campus. The meeting was peacefully disassembled but tensions remained. In May, Sorbonne students stood up for Nanterre, by then shut down. Then, police invaded the university and 20 000 stood up against the police.

“Convert all Parisian universities into reception centres for the revolutionary youth of the whole world.”

– student proposal

Somewhere in that crowd were those whose interest went beyond the main spectacle: the toppling of the new ancien regime. A #JeanRouch​ian anthropologist of sorts, artist, photographer and filmmaker William Klein pushes the eye through the masses. But it's also his eye; each frame is a Klein. However, we see not a documentary. Sound is asynchronous. Suddenly, it's night and flames lick the black sky. When bricks fly, frames follow. And then… the end.