The subject of Agnes Varda’s wonderful documentary Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) is the centuries old tradition of gleaning left-over products after the harvest. Originally a peasant woman’s job, the film demonstrates that gleaning has become a way of life for many cultural sectors, including the homeless, youth, philanthropists and artists. Her interview subjects include a farm woman, a winegrower, an acclaimed chef, an artist who works with found objects, a barkeeper, a man who has lived on garbage for ten years, and a descendant of ƒtienne-Jules Marey, one of the original inventors of cinema. But the film’s interests are infinitely wide-ranging. They include the filmmaker’s own ageing, the tiny new digital camera she now uses, and the environmental disaster of consumer culture.
France, 2000. English subtitles. Colour. Dolby stereo SR. 82 minutes
Varda was so moved by the reaction to Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse that she decided to make a follow-up film two years later. Again armed with her trusty
video camera, she documents the events that transpired after the first film became a world-wide favourite on the festival circuit. Varda not only revisits a number of people she interviewed in the earlier film but also tracks down those who loved that film and expressed their appreciation by writing to her.
France, 2002. English subtitles. Colour. Dolby stereo SR. 76 minutes