Les glaneurs et la glaneuse

'Gleaning' is an age-old right of the poorest people, whereby they were given permission to search the fields for any crops left behind after the official harvest. Gleaning is an archaic term that means searching. In this award-winning documentary, Agnès Varda not only travels to the French countryside to portray the various gleaners, she also travels to the city to talk to people who search for food in rubbish bins. She does this, which was not so common at the time, with a handheld camera. In this way, she finds, collects and reuses the images; she is la glaneuse. She called it “cinécriture”, writing with images.

Searching for and (re)using food left behind by others is a necessity for some, but for others it is a principled choice to combat waste. Among them are the chef of a two-Michelin-star restaurant, the owner of a vineyard and an artist specialising in chronophotography.