Film festivals offer the chance to catch the latest releases before they hit the theatres, but they’re also a great way to catch up with older films that have particular resonance in the present day. Agnès Varda’s 2000 documentary The Gleaners and I (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) is a perfect example of the latter type of film because it’s timely in addressing several modern social concerns, including reducing food waste and thus fighting global warming, increasing access to healthy food for those who would otherwise have difficulty obtaining it, and allowing a place in a capitalist society for those who choose to go their own way. It’s also a charming and unpretentious film that exemplifies a low-key approach to documentary filmmaking and that treats its subjects with respect and recognizes their right to be exactly who and what they are.
Gleaning is mentioned in the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus (part of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible and the Torah in Judaism), whose composition most scholars date to around the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, so it’s a practice that has long been recognized in human societies.* In these sources, farmers were instructed to leave some of their crops behind for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers to gather, thus creating a form of social support that grants dignity to all involved. Gleaning has also been practiced in Europe since at least the 14th century and has been memorialized in artworks such as Jean-François Millet’s 1857 painting The Gleaners (Des glaneuses), which is referenced several times in this film.
Varda takes us with her on a journey through France as she discovers what gleaning is, some different types of gleaning, and why the various gleaners she meets do it. It’s a fine example of what Varda called her cinécriture or “cinema writing” process in which the form and content of the film emerges organically from the process of making it rather than having been planned and scripted in advance. She’s not striving for gloss or perfection but instead capitalizes on chance moments and leaves the end result a bit messy, like life itself. Of course someone had to do research to find the subjects and all films are ultimately made in the editing suite, but the experience of watching The Gleaners and I is that of a series of straightforward, natural encounters between Varda and the various people she meets on her journey, combined with occasional personal digressions. It’s worth noting that was the first film Varda shot on digital and the less intrusive presence of a smaller, lighter camera (the Sony TRV900 Mini DV Camcorder) facilitated conducting interviews in the field and shooting in a variety of sometimes rugged natural locations.
The Gleaners and I makes it clear that there are many types of gleaning, and different types people practicing it: country folk who have always used gleaning to supplement what they produce, city folk capitalizing on the surprising amount of edible food discarded every day, political types for whom living outside the capitalist system is a point of honor, and people who glean food to distribute to others. Gleaning is protected by French law, but within limits: for instance, those who glean oysters can only take a certain amount and must remain a specified distance from commercial oyster beds, while those who glean grapes are allowed to do so only after a specific date (by which time the commercial harvest has been completed).
For the most part, gleaning is a cooperative practice that protects commercial rights while reducing waste and allowing people willing and able to use the food left behind by commercial harvesters and discarded by merchants to do so. One thing it’s not is not a license to steal or to damage the property of others, as a group of urban hippie types find out after an ill-fated dumpster diving expedition that resulted in legal action (Varda describes the communication failures around this incident as “a dialogue of the deaf—but not of the mute!”). That’s really the only negative example in this film, and the lesson delivered is not against gleaning but against self-centered and unreasonable behavior. | Sarah Boslaugh
*I hope this is a reasonable summary and I’m not trying to offend other cultural traditions who may also practice gleaning. As far as the identification of religious texts, I was raised in the Congregational Church so that’s the terminology I’m going with.
The Gleaners and I will be screened on Nov. 7 at 2pm at the Saint Louis Art Museum as part of the 35th annual Saint Louis International Film Festival. Information about tickets and the full festival schedule is available from the Festival web site.
