| Gleaners are everywhere sifting through harvested fields and looking through dumpsters to name two gleaning sites. But I had not thought about them until I watched a Netflix video. Agnes Varda's "The Gleaners and I". It was filmed in 2000 when she was 72 years old. She is well known in France as a pioneer in the New Wave films. She is a feminist and activist. The theme of the "The Gleaners and I" was our society is wasteful of food, manufactured products and without words she communicated that she felt she was a discarded senior. In Oregon the art of gleaning is an art in the best of health.  |
| Don gleaning firewood from dying trees about 8 years ago |
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| About 19 years ago Don chopping wood gleaned from neighbor's diseased trees. |
Varda believes all roles in making a film should work together. Cinematographer, screenwriter, director, etc. working simultaneously to create a more cohesive film, and all elements of the film should contribute to its message. at first I was puzzled by what appeared to me as disconnected.She combined pictures of her old hands and gray hair with interviews of people from all backgrounds eating and collecting agricultural waste and urban garbage. It was a real stretch for me to associate Verda with societies discards. She intended to say society makes older people discards and that she proves how wrong society is?
But what was most interesting to me was the creative process of some of the gleaners who were performing or visual artists or lived creatively.
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| It is fun picking up glass and other micro-trash on our neighborhood roadways and then make an assemblage. |
7 comments:
What a lovely recycle that last piece is. It does take an eye of the artist to see such things in trash.
It is one of the things I miss in going for Netflix streaming, that they don't have all these documentaries that I know I'd enjoy.
As for old people being discards, I don't see it that way being an old person at 75. I think many of us live quite good lives with many opportunities to be involved in society if we wish. She is French though. Is it different there?
I have watched some of the YouTube videos made by people living in their cars. Most chose it, but some felt forced into it. They are mostly young. I think discards can come from any age group.
That said, gleaning and re-purposing is a good thing. I think I read that France made a law that the food that would be thrown out must be put out for anyone to take. In our country, I think there is some fear of lawsuits. A lot of stores and restaurants have to cope with that risk as part of business. Perhaps laws could be changed to allow it without that fear-- like if you take it, it's your risk.
Than you for your comments Tabor and Rain. Does it take an artist to see a use for trash? Good question. Might also involve need and limited resources.
I never thought that the distributing of unused food by businesses is limited by fear of being sued.
Talk to them about it. We have with Safeway considering getting some of the throw away for the sheep. We didn't do it but others do. We live in a lawsuit crazed country where people even create an accident to sue.
Also distributing it, if someone covered the cost, say to homeless shelters, would be different than letting people pick it out of dumpsters or boxes left out for them as to lawsuit risk. I think it'd take though someone else covering the distributing costs as you probably know grocery stores operate on a very slim profit margin.
My experience is with the Corvallis St. Mary's soup kitchen. Local bakeries supply them with surplus bread and desserts. They also take donations of fresh produce.
In Israel stores leave unsold unwrapped breads to picked up just outside by their doors.
I see carts of bread stuff going out from Winco and i am sure they are on their way to group homes of some sort
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