Drawing especially on the encounters and relationships that defined her exceptional career, The Sustainable Legacy of Agnès Varda outlines a sustainable legacy for the celebrated director and visual artist. Over nine chapters, it unpacks how creation, connection, and environment form the core of Varda’s artistry, which centers foremost on relationships with her family, with other artists, even with passersby she would meet in her travels around the world.Also celebrating her feminist legacy, the chapters cover a wide range, from the classic Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) to documentaries The Beaches of Agnès (2008) and Faces Places (2017) as well as selected art installations. The book’s final section is dedicated to teaching Varda’s work; here, ten scholars from around the world consider how Varda’s art and feminist pedagogies offer unique ways to bring crucial concepts into the classroom. By seeking a sustainable praxis to discuss and teach Varda’s work, and by making pedagogical concerns an explicit part of this approach, this book argues that Varda’s insights about the nature of creative work will inspire new generations of viewers and audiences.
Colleen Kennedy-Karpat teaches film and media studies at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.Feride Çiçekoglu is Director of Graduate Programs in Film and Television at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey.
List of IllustrationsList of ContributorsAcknowledgments1. Sustaining Joy in Varda’s Legacy - Colleen Kennedy-KarpatPart 1 Creation2. Agnès Varda’s Formalist Feminism - Jennifer Stob3. Gleaning Metaphors from Reality in the Documentary Films of Agnès Varda - Joseph Horsey4. The Nude Auteur, Denuding Filmmaking - Ayça ÇiftçiPart 2 Connections5. Women Directors on the Edge of Hollywood: Agnès Varda/Shirley Clarke in and beyond Lions Love (1969) - Zizi Li6. Agnès Varda and Ursula Le Guin in Dialogue: The Narrator’s Carrier Bag - Ruken Dogu ErdedePart 3 Environments7. Passion, Commitment, Compassion: Les Justes au Panthe´on by Agne`s Varda - Sandy Flitterman-Lewis8. Urban Environments and Agnès Varda’s Genius loci - Zeynep Demirhan and Colleen Kennedy-Karpat9. Iran Under Varda’s Eyes: Interview with Dr. Ali Rafie - Negar TaymoorzadehPart 4 Teaching VardaSection Introduction: Teaching Varda - Colleen Kennedy-Karpat10. Agnès Varda: The Queen of the Margins - Beth Tsai11. Teaching Varda Teaching - Sandy Flitterman-Lewis12. Varda’s Sans toit ni loi/Vagabond (1985): The Center of My Feminist Film Teaching, 1998–2020 - Kate Ince13. Teaching Vagabond (1985) - Homay King14. Cléo from Abu Dhabi to Seoul - Seung-hoon Jeong15. Digital Time, Teaching Temporalities, and Feminist Pedagogies: Teaching Varda’s Gleaners (2000) Twenty Years on - Jenny Chamarette16. Gleaning with Visible Machines: Teaching Digital Cinema and Embodiment with Agnès Varda - Michael Cramer17. Teaching Le Bonheur (1964) - Jeremi Szaniawsk18. Vardian Lessons: From Sea to Screen and Beyond - Nadine Boljkovac19. Farewell to Idols with Varda - Feride ÇiçekoglFilmography: Agnès VardaAdditional FilmographyBibliographyIndex
The Sustainable Legacy of Agnès Varda constitutes a magnificent critical tribute to the work of a filmmaker who turned cinema into an art of encountering. Arguing that her legacy extends beyond her filmography, through an ethical and political vision of art worth examining, the contributors of this book remained faithful to the memory of a woman and an artist committed to her time.