The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse)

Agnès Varda is a veteran of both documentary and feature production. This visually gorgeous essay-film, shot on digital video, shows her elegant eye and supple mind in top form. Gleaning, the practice of picking up crops left behind by hired pickers, is an ancient institution, and Varda makes it a powerful metaphor. Modern gleaners find nourishment in oyster beds, potato fields, street markets, and dumpsters. In Varda's collection of gleaned images, we encounter people (including famous artists), paintings, insights into our wasteful agribusiness system, and playful visual poems. The film's warmth and ingenuity made it surprisingly popular; it's now on DVD with a sequel revisiting Varda's subjects two years later.