French Avant-garde filmmaker and documentarian, Agnes Varda trains her ever-seeking eye on “gleaners”, those who pick at already harvested fields for the odd potato or turnip, who insist on finding a use for what society has determined it has no use for. Her investigation leads us from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets in Paris where her diverse and resourceful subjects share their lifestyle and choices.
Varda’s own ruminations on her life as a filmmaker (a gleaner of sorts), gives her a connection to her subjects that creates a touching human portrait that the L.A. Weekly called “a protest film that’s part social critique, part travelogue, but always an unsentimental celebration of human resilience”.
Winner of Best European Documentary at the European Film Awards and Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival.