The gleaners and the gleaner

Agnès Varda has come across people who scavenge in the garbage, out of necessity or by chance. The director also gleans in that surprising world.

Agnès Varda was born in Ixelles, Belgium in 1928. She grew up with four brothers and sisters. In 1940, her family moved to the south of France to escape the war. She spent her teen years in Sète and then moved to Paris, where she studied at the École du Louvre and took evening photography classes at the École de Vaugirard.

Agnès Varda became a photographer for Jean Vilar when he founded the Avignon theatre festival in 1948, then for the Théâtre National Populaire at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. She held her first personal exhibition in 1954, in the courtyard of her house.

That same year, Agnès Varda made the leap to cinema without any formal training. She founded Ciné Tamaris (a cooperative) to produce and direct her first feature film, ‘La pointe courte’, which tells the story of a sad couple and their relationship in a small town. The film was the stylistic precursor of the French "Nouvelle vague”, earning the title of "Godmother of the French New Wave". Since then, she directed short and feature films, both fiction and documentaries.

Varda was a pioneer in opening up film directing to women. "I suggested women to study cinema. I told them: 'Get out of the kitchen, get out of your home, get the tools to make films.'"

In 2003, she began her third career as a visual artist at the Venice Biennale.

Agnès Varda was married to filmmaker Jacques Demy (died in 1990) and together they raised Rosalie Varda-Demy, a costume designer and producer, and Mathieu Demy, an actor and filmmaker.

Year of production: 2000

Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes

Country: France

Language: French with Spanish subtitles

Director: Agnès Varda

Cast:

Production:

Screenwriter: Agnès Varda

Cinematography: Agnès Varda, Didier Doussin, Stéphane Krausz, Didier Rouger, Pascal Sautelet

Production companies: Ciné-Tamaris

International Sales: MK2

Winner of the European Film Award and at the festivals of Chicago, Montréal, Santa Barbara, Viennale, Prague and numerous international critics' awards.