Photography At Oregon presents: Agnès Varda – Faces Places

January 28, 2022 6:30 doors open; movie starts 7:00pm

NewZone Gallery
110 East 11th Ave
Eugene, Oregon
541-686-1240
photographyatoregon@comcast.net
www.photographyatoregon.org
Free to the public; donations accepted

Agnès Varda, who was born in Belgium in 1928s and died in Paris in 2019, was one of the leading figures of the French New Wave. She was a student at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre and later became a photographer and film maker. Her first film, La Pointe was shot in a distinct visual style with a documentary feel, alternating between two narratives: a young couple examining their troubled marriage and a fishing village dealing with its collective problems. Varda’s still photography sometimes inspired her subsequent motion pictures. She maintained a fluid interrelationship between photographic and cinematic forms: “I take photographs, or I make films,” she said. “Or I put films in the photos, or photos in the films.”

Faces Places (2017)
In 2017, Varda co-directed Faces Places with the artist JR (the pseudonym of a French photographer and street artist whose identity is unconfirmed). They teamed up to co-direct this enchanting documentary/road movie.

It follows Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across. Varda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for this film, making her the oldest person to be nominated for a competitive Oscar. Although the nomination was her first, Varda did not regard it as important, stating: “There is nothing to be proud of, but happy. Happy because we make films to love. We make films so that you love the film.”

Taken from Britannica and Wikipedia