Voyage au Congo (1927)

A love partner of the writer André Gide, as well as his travel companion in their journey to the French colonies of Central Africa, Marc Allégret decided to film their 11-month wandering in the exotic continent, though stripping away the element of adventure. Contrary to the newly established type of documentaries, such as Nanook of the North, that made use of suspense to permeate the action with epic qualities, Allégret, despite having no prior training in cinema, proved to be a pioneer by creating a strictly ethnographically-driven type of documentary. His camera's approach is tactful as he captures the glance of a privileged white man in a world of natural and spiritual purity, paving the way to a new cinema genre.