July 9, 2026
Last year we started a program dedicated to masters in the short film medium that have intrinsically shaped cinema as we know it today. This year we are especially happy to dedicate this program to a maven of this art: Agnès Varda. A selection from her oeuvre will be on view during this edition of DokuFest.
Starting from the Black Panthers (1968), we go to Varda’s time in California to have a first-hand look at the Black Panther movement. Moving from observation to political commentary, Varda highlights the Panthers’ activism, public image and impact on Oakland’s African American community while documenting a pivotal moment in U.S. history. Gestures, movements and collective rituals become key visuals in understanding the vibrancy of the culture and its dignity. Varda unifies her visual voice within the rows of the protests, bringing firsthand accounts of the movement.
Next to L’Opera Mouffe we stroll around Rue Mouffetard guided by Varda’s singular and poetic lens, marking one of her first masterpieces of personal documentary cinema. The director, at the time pregnant with her first child, roams her surroundings while capturing intimate moments of love and all the mayhem and abundance found in everyday resilience. The stylistic fluidity finds its home in expressing empathy and humanity, knocking on the door of the French New Wave that was about to rise.
From Rue Mouffertard we step into the exquisite Paris neighborhood where Varda lived most of her life with Le lion volatil. Taking inspiration from Paris, this story is fantastically-natured, following the journey of Clarisse and a friend who disappeared together with the statue-lion of the Place de Belfort. The poetics of urbanity beam through the frames, and with it we find the woven fascination with space and community accompanying with a curious case to resolve.
And through the search of a disappearing marble mascot of the 14th arrondissement, we go to 1976 in Isfahan with Plaisir d’amour en Iran following the poetic encounter of two lovers of Pomme and Ali Darius, finding parallels of love and light through mosaics and architecture. The documentary form intertwines with lyricism and imagination, and it is a unique showcase of Iran pre-revolution.
Our last stop with the program dedicated to Agnès Varda, is in Cuba with Salut les Cubans. Made out of more than 1800 still images, taken by the director herself, follows an enticing procedure of making the still images lifelike. Accompanied by Cuban music and narration by Michel Piccoli, the film enthusiastically showcases life in Cuba as Varda famously described it “a mixture of socialism and cha-cha-cha”.
