Agnès Varda: Voice, Memory & Self-Portrait

Agnès Varda never pretends that the person holding the camera is invisible. In The Gleaners and I, her hand enters the frame, her voice interrupts and the things she films begin to reflect something back at her. The self-portrait grows out of these encounters rather than sitting apart from them.

For the second session of our Agnès Varda month, Sammy Holden will examine what happens when a filmmaker’s own response becomes part of the material. We will look at the different ways a person can be present through voice, reflection and uncertainty, without deciding how everything should be understood.

Working in small groups, we will choose an everyday object and plan three images of it: first as a piece of evidence, then as a portrait, and finally as part of the filmmaker’s own response. Each group will write a short voiceover of no more than 80 words, adding something that…