FOCO Punto de Vista returns to the Navarra Film Library this Thursday with a tribute to the filmmaker, Agnès Varda, mother of the New Wave

The French director, Agnès Varda, began to make films inspired by the French New Wave movement 60 years ago and has been recognised throughout the world for her personal and unmistakeable stamp: a ground-breaking style which combines reality and experimentation with a notable social and political emphasis. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, this year Varda has received an Honorary Oscar Award in recognition of her brilliant and productive career and her unconstrained films.

On the 50th anniversary of the protests that shook the whole world in May 1968, FOCO Punto de Vista will screen a collection of three renegade titles that Agnès Varda filmed during those years: a feminist argument that is still true today; a journey through the hippie neighbourhood of San Francisco; and a portrait of the Black Panthers Party, a group that emerged to condemn the harshness of the police against the African-Americans.

Uncle Yanco
(1967, 18’)

On one of her working visits to San Francisco, Agnès Varda was told of a relative, from whom she had never received any news: an old painter who lived on a boat in the hippie neighbourhood of San Francisco, Sausalito, and who loved life. The director filmed that meeting and this is the result: a happy and radiant portrait which captures a lifestyle.

Black Panthers
(1968, 30’)

Agnès Varda filmed this documentary on the Black Panther Party during the trial of one of its founders, Huey P. Newton; allegedly accused of murder. The film portrays the protests and confrontations between police and protestors during the court case.

Réponse des femmes: notre corps, notre sexe
(France, 8’)

Beyond her unconventional and renegade film, Varda is known for her efforts to open up the film world to women: “Get out of the kitchen, out of your houses, take the tools to make films”; and this short film, self named a short-pamphlet, is an example of her determination. In this documentary, the French director asks the question, “What is being a woman?” to seven filmmakers who construct the answer: “The woman needs to be reinvented”.

The appointment with Agnès Varda’s films is this Thursday at 8pnm in the Navarra Film Library.