The Gleaners and I

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 life styles 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.