"THE GLEANERS AND I is a catalog of subjects candid, unsettling, touching, and sublime, gathered and arranged into a curious, playful, very Varda whole.” - NYFF
"She (Varda) plucks images and stories from the world around her, finding beauty and nourishment in lives and activities the world prefers to ignore." - Dana Stevens, New York Times
Agnès Varda’s extraordinary late-career renaissance began with this wonderfully idiosyncratic, self-reflexive documentary in which the ever-curious French cinema icon explores the little-known world of modern-day gleaners: those living on the margins who survive by foraging for that which society throws away. Embracing the intimacy and freedom of digital filmmaking, Varda posits herself as a kind of gleaner of images and ideas, one whose generous, expansive vision makes room for ruminations on everything from aging to the birth of cinema to the beauty of heart-shaped potatoes. By turns playful, philosophical, and subtly political, THE GLEANERES AND I is a warmly human reflection on the contradictions of our consumerist world from an artist who, like her subjects, finds unexpected richness where few think to look.
Awards & Nominations
2000 Chicago International Film Festival - Gold Hugo for Best Documentary
Ages of Agnès | May 2–27, 2026
In a career spanning seven decades, artist and filmmaker Agnès Varda crafted an unparalleled canon of formally innovative and poetic films. Considered a progenitor of the French New Wave, her shape-shifting films often employ a hybrid of documentary and fictional narrative approaches and prioritize women’s stories and perspectives. The six films in Ages of Agnès, each from a different decade, chart Varda’s groundbreaking career and celebrate her compelling and charismatic style of filmmaking.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu