6. The Gleaners And I And The Gleaners And I: Two Years Later
Experimental French filmmaker Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I (2000) and The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002) represent two of the most curious films that focus on the ever-growing subculture of "gleaning." Gleaning is the French practice of collecting thrown-away or uncultivated foodstuffs on farms, as well as recycling of various forms. In other cultures, gleaning may be called scrounging or reusing, and many people are familiar with the practices of "freegans" (or the more derogatory "dumpster divers") in the United States who find new use from discarded food and other items. Agnès Varda's two films about gleaners are experimental and charming at the same time. She shows us the significance of a practice that may seem foreign to usespecially since many of us have been trained to live the consumerist lifestyle of buy-throw away-buy. The practice of gleaning may seem eccentric, but on closer inspection Varda shows us that a subcultural curiosity could better serve the mainstream society were it to take notice. Equally significant in this regard is Mai Iskander's Garbage Dreams (2009), which profiles the Zaballeen of Cairo, Egypt who employ extensive practices of local recycling.
Scott A. Lukas
Contributor
Scott A. Lukas has taught anthropology and sociology Lake Tahoe Community College for sixteen years and in 2013 was Visiting Professor of American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has been recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association (2005), the California Hayward Award for Excellence in Education (2003), and a Sierra Arts Foundation Artist Grant Program Award in Literary–Professional (2009). In 2006, he was a nominee to the California Community College Board of Governors. He is the author/editor of The Immersive Worlds Handbook (2012), Theme Park (2008), The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nature, and Self (2007), Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade, (co-edited with John Marmysz, 2009), Recent Developments in Criminological Theory (co-edited with Stuart Henry, 2009), and Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (2010). His book Theme Park was recently translated into Arabic. He appeared in the documentary The Nature of Existence and has provided interviews for To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Caravan (India).
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