ABSTRACT
Many anthropologists focus on political, economic and social contexts in which Africans watch films, but they have difficulties grasping how these films impact their lives. Dieudonné Niangouna, a Congolese actor, is convinced that Kung Fu films taught him to respond flexibly to threatening conflicts. He wanted to find out how films affect Europeans, so he invited 20 people living in the Rhine-Main area to re-enact film scenes as part of a theatre project. The author of this book accepted the offer and explored existential dimensions of film reception she had not been aware of previously. Jean Rouch proceeded similarly to Niangouna when he shot Moi, un Noir in 1958, but the Congolese director went further than the French anthropologist: Rouch makes no appearance in his film—Niangouna appears on stage and, thus, suspends the distinction between the researcher and the object of research.
