Gleaning.

• What was most surprising to you about this film?

I was very surprised that people are still so eager to glean, even when they have a stable income and do not need to at all;  they simply do not like to see anything go to waste.  Furthermore, I was shocked to see how much food actually does go to waste, especially in the farms.  I really did not even know people still gleaned at all.  However the most surprising part was the chef who gleaned-  I thought that was very neat that he was a well-known chef who gleaned for food supplies for his restaurant.  As he said, he knows where the food comes from if he gleans it himself.

• How does Varda, a well-respected experimental filmmaker, compare this film to gleaning?

This film portrayed the modern day gleaning-  whether picking up farm left overs, or digging in the trash for usable discarded items, the people gleaned.  Instead of having perfectly usable food and products discarded, people choose not to waste and to use it.  Much like back in the day, people still pick-up food from the fields.  Though they are not harvesting the crop. they are making sure that no food goes to waste and using it as a means of even survival.

• How do the images of gleaning by Millet and Van Gogh differ from those Varda presents in her film?

The image gleanings depict a much older time in which only women glean in their outfits of long, drappy dresses in which they use part of that material to hold the materials they glean.  The images show women gleaning in groups, while in the film most of the people gleaned solitarily.  Also in the film there is much more high tech equipment used, while in the images it is simply basic tools.