August 7, 2007

Careful!

"But you had music playing during the hippopotamus hunt!" 
I said "Yes." 
I felt a bit guilty.

Just like in a good old western I'd wanted to shore up the dramatic moments with music.

But at least I'd used traditional hunting music.

They said, "That's true but a hippo has very good ears. Music would scare it off."





(Jean Rouch on the reactions of the people of Ayoru to Bataille sur le grand fleuve [Hippopotamus Hunt], his film of 1951.)

1 comment:

Tucker said...

I heard of a similar reaction when some European doctors/aid workers brought an anti-malaria hygene film to some African tribes. The Africans said they certainly had flies that looked like those in the film, but none were THAT big. Needless to say, the film showed closeups of the flies.

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