French film director and ethnologist Jean Rouch shot this documentary, which looks at the possession ritual of the Hauka cult, in which Nigerian migrants outside Accra enter a trance state to imitate the military ceremonies of their British colonial occupiers, in a single day in 1954. Rouch considered the film to be a catalyst for his concept ofciné-transe, in which the camera is recognized as a provocateur, playing its part in causing the trance shared by “actors,” filmmakers, and viewers. (1956, 29 minutes, not rated)

FRENCH FILM SERIES part of the FACE Tournées French Film Festival.