When I was young I would go with my grandparents to my uncle's farm to pick fresh vegetables. The main vegetable that I remember picking is okra. Armed with my pocket knife, I was informed by my grandmother to only gather the medium sized okra pods because they were the best ones to eat. I was a bit bothered by this because I felt that the other ones would go to waste. I am not sure what my uncle did with remaining vegetables, but I assume they were often left to rot in his fields without serving their purpose to feed the populace.
Varda's film The Gleaners and I is a documentary depicting her travels throughout the countryside of France in her pursuit to find individuals who live off of the items cast off by others. Gleaning used to be a normal activity of woman in the countryside who gathered the remaining grain in the fields after the harvest came to an end, but this practice almost ceased to be after heavy machinery came to gather the food. Now, gleaners are quite often the destitute who gather the leftovers of the harvest in order to add to their meager diets. However, there are also those who glean because the activity was passed down in their blood or it is something they enjoy doing.
Traveling from vineyards to potato fields, apple orchards to the urban sprawl, and the seaside to museums, Varda's documentary encompasses the waste that is common in capitalist societies and how many farmers, winemakers, store owners prefer the excess to rot, spoil, and be thrown away instead of being used to help the down and out. However, the mood of the film is not entirely dark, because Varda does a wonderful job of depicting the beauty of castoff items and how some individuals, the castoffs of society, make due in a society that would prefer them just to disappear.
Varda's film The Gleaners and I is a documentary depicting her travels throughout the countryside of France in her pursuit to find individuals who live off of the items cast off by others. Gleaning used to be a normal activity of woman in the countryside who gathered the remaining grain in the fields after the harvest came to an end, but this practice almost ceased to be after heavy machinery came to gather the food. Now, gleaners are quite often the destitute who gather the leftovers of the harvest in order to add to their meager diets. However, there are also those who glean because the activity was passed down in their blood or it is something they enjoy doing.
Traveling from vineyards to potato fields, apple orchards to the urban sprawl, and the seaside to museums, Varda's documentary encompasses the waste that is common in capitalist societies and how many farmers, winemakers, store owners prefer the excess to rot, spoil, and be thrown away instead of being used to help the down and out. However, the mood of the film is not entirely dark, because Varda does a wonderful job of depicting the beauty of castoff items and how some individuals, the castoffs of society, make due in a society that would prefer them just to disappear.