The Gleaners and I (2000) Film Discussion

The next film we'll discuss is the 2000 French documentary The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda. The film interviews an array of foragers, freegans and activists all upholding the ancient French tradition of “gleaning”, famously represented in Jean-François Millet’s classical French painting.

The Gleaners and I observes present-day gleaners in urban and rural France – harvesters, scavengers, artists. The film is interested in people, and in the resourcefulness and creativity of scavenging, salvaging and collecting. Varda described her film as a ‘wandering road movie’. It’s also fascinating self-portrait of one the most influential filmmakers of the French New Wave.

Varda meets people on both sides of the food waste equation: the farmers and winemakers, facing their own pressures, who leave a portion of their crops to rot in the fields, and many others who scout for leftovers, whether out of necessity, custom, or a refusal to participate in our contemporary systems of food production and consumption.

The film is available to stream via BFI, Curzon and Criterion.