For our very first episode, we focus on Agnés Varda’s beloved documentary, THE GLEANERS AND I.

Released in the year 2000, this warm, meandering masterpiece, which opened our 2026 festival, explores the act of gleaning—not only as collecting food that would otherwise go to waste, but as a multifaceted means of survival, expression, ecological responsibility, and belonging.

Varda passed away in 2019, leaving behind a legendary body of work spanning more than fifty years, including several films that explore ecological themes.

Our featured guest is producer, writer, and film curator, Kiva Reardon. Kiva has dedicated countless hours to appreciating, studying, and writing about Varda. She even spent time with Agnés Varda and named her celebrated journal of film and feminism after the eponymous character of Varda’s breakthrough 1962 feature film, Cléo from 5 to 7.

The founder of the Portland EcoFilm Festival, Dawn Smallman, joins our conversation, which explores what it was like to spend time with the famously curious filmmaker, radical empathy related to Varda's films and ecology, and much more.

Kiva shares her favorite ecological films:

• WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS (2006 | Dir. Spike Lee)
• SOME KIND OF REFUGE (2026 | Dir. Alexandra Kern)
• PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997 | Dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
• THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (2002 | Dir. Peter Jackson)
• FORAGERS (2022 | Dir. Jumana Manna)
• INCIDENT AT RESTIGOUCHE (1984 | Dir. Alanis Obomsawin)
• BLOOD QUANTUM (2019 | Jeff Barnaby)

(Several of these are available to rent at the best video store in the world, Movie Madness, in Portland, Oregon.)

Our host—and the director of the festival, Rozzell Medina, also talks with Lizz Marks about what it was like to go from gleaning as a child to doing it professionally with Urban Gleaners. She shares insights into differences between the gleaning we see in Varda’s 2000 film (in France), what it’s like to glean 26 years later in Portland, OR, and how people can put a foot into the world of gleaning.

The Portland EcoFilm Festival is a signature program of the Hollywood Theatre. Our podcast is hosted and produced by festival director Rozzell Medina.

portlandecofilmfest.org

hollywoodtheatre.org

Our theme music is from the song “Earth Worship” by the amazing band, Rubblebucket.

Our 2026 special presentation of THE GLEANERS AND I at the Hollywood Theatre was sponsored by Lift UP, the Coalition to Advance Food Equity, and Urban Gleaners.