As I learned at this year’s Qumra, held by the Doha Film Institute, the grand dame of French New Wave cinema Agnès Varda was all about finding the stories, the viewpoints that no one else would bother with. The Festival de Cannes, in its poster just unveiled for the 72nd edition of the festival, pays homage to La Varda but also to her indomitable spirit by showing the filmmaker on her first cinematic venture perched high up on a platform, atop the shoulders of a crew technician. She is looking to capture that image, the viewpoint which no one else would have even thought about. She is Varda, in all her perfectly humble and adventurous attitude. The same Varda who asked me, to my utter disbelief, if I’d liked her “little film” a few years ago in Cannes.
In their press release introducing the stunning poster, the Festival de Cannes wrote the most beautiful tribute to Agnès Varda.
I just wish to add that Varda has become a personal inspiration to keep going lately.
Her own important loss when her husband Jacques Demy passed away in 1990 didn’t stop her. It actually inspired her to create and continue, this time making Demy the center of her art. Loss in my own life almost pulled me to the floor, closed my eyes and shut my inner joy, the spark I needed to keep going. But after watching Varda’s work and realizing that as women we also hold a responsibility, to do work which highlights and showcases what men would never find inspiring and yet is so very important for the world at large, I got myself up, dusted myself off and started looking at the keys of my computer once again, with renewed enthusiasm.
So thank you Festival de Cannes, for featuring a filmmaker on your poster who makes me, makes women proud to be who we are!
Stay tuned as Thursday, April 18th, the official selection of this year’s festival will be announced, live on Facebook, Twitter, Dailymotion and YouTube.