Preceded by short: The Myth of Peribo (El Mito de Peribo) (Alonso Toro, Mar?Christina Diaz Silva, Venezuela, 1988). In this film made by the Yanomami, an origin myth depicting them as the "sons of the moon" comes to life through claymation. (8 mins, In Spanish with English synopsis, 3/4" video) Rouch's Gang documents the making of Madame L'eau by Jean Rouch (see October 13). It opens with Rouch and Germaine Dieterlen, the grande dame of French ethnology, greeting the Nigerien actors as they arrive in Pari for the European leg of the filming and a retrospective of their films. Intercutting their panel discussion, clips from their earlier films, and rehearsals for Madame L'eau, the film's many hilarious scenes are of incalculable value for the glimpses they offer into the ways of this extemporary filmmaking team, held together (and apart) by a "joking relationship." Rouch's Gang bears out Rouch's claim that, for him, "there is almost no boundary between documentary film and films of fiction. The cinema, the art of the double, is already a transition from the real to the imaginary world, and ethnography, the science of thought systems of others, is a permanent crossing point from one conceptual universe to another, where losing one's footing is the least of the risks."-Lucien Taylor