For this, 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 and place-based 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 her daughter, Rosalie, 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 and passionate filmmaker, radical empathy in her films, and much more.

Kiva shares several of her favorite ecological films, including:

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 films 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 for her to go from gleaning as a child to doing it professionally with Urban Gleaners. She also shares her insights on differences between the gleaning we see in Varda’s 2000 film (in France) and what it’s like to glean 26 years later in Portland, Oregon.

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