‘Lion Hunters’ at Alliance Francaise

Hunting the Lion with a Bow and Arrow (La chasse au lion à l'arc) renowned French filmmaker Jean Rouch documentary about lion hunters on the Mali/Niger border will be screened at 3 pm on Tuesday, January 29 and 6.30 pm on Wednesday January 30 at Alliance Francaise, Barnes Place Colombo-7.

From 1957 to 1964 Rouch followed the Gaos hunters in the Yatakala region making several attempts to film the ancient lion hunt, in which skill and magic are closely intertwined: the making of bows and arrows; the preparation of poison; the chase; the killing ritual.

The old man-eater lion, nicknamed 'the American', keeps avoiding the traps; the Gaos only manage to catch two of his females. After the hunt the men tell their children the story of 'gaway gawey', the wonderful lion hunt. Born in Paris in 1917, Jean Rouch died last year in his beloved Africa, where he made most of his ethnographic documentaries.

After havinggraduated in engineering, starting from 1947, he dedicated himself to the study of ethnology and the making of documentaries in the French colonies in Africa, initially under the guidance of Marcel Griaule. Considered from many aspects as one of the forerunners of the Nouvelle Vague, he was a pioneer of documentary technique in continuation of Robert Flaherty's method.

Among his unnumerable appointments, he was Director of the Cnrs of Paris, Secretary General of the Comité du Film Ethnographique and Director of the Cinémathèque Française It was awarded the 'Leone d'Oro'at the XXVI International Cinematographic Exhibition of Venice in 1965. The film carries English subtitles.