Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Life in a Dumpster

Image, still from: The Gleaners and I (2000), Agnes Varda, dir.

Who knew food history research would involve dumpster diving? As a subject, that is, not an activity. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. For some people, dumpster diving is cultural commentary.

Dumpster diving came to my attention as a part of my foraging research. When interviewing DC-area foragers, a few wanted to clarify they didn’t dumpster dive, and that they found it disgusting, but wanted me to know that rummaging around in dumpsters was also form of foraging.

A few recent viewings drove home this point. The best of these is French and recommended if you like the French and aren‘t a stickler for linear narrative style. Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I, 2000 (the French title directly translates as “the gleaners and the (female) gleaner or gleaneress.” The film is partially autobiographical and not exclusively focused on gleaning or foraging food, but includes artists who make art of found objects.

I watched the film because it ties together the historic practice of gleaning with contemporary urban issues and food economics. (Technically, gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops and has served as a form of welfare in some places. It's also a handy metaphor.)

This food film contrasts sharply with fairly contemporary hard-hitting American documentary features like Food, Inc, The Future of Food and Modern Meat. The Gleaners is very personal and anecdotal. There are no bad guys -- even the large-scale farmers who won’t let gleaners collect leftovers on their property have feelings. One is an exceptional artist whose drawings appear in a special feature on the DVD. I really don’t see “The Softer Side of Monsanto*” coming to DVD anytime soon.

One of the primary subjects in the French film dumpster dives. He also runs marathons and teaches French to immigrants at night. Selling homeless journals is his only source of income. But although urban gleaning is a necessity for this guy, his pure pragmatism and lack of materialism (or guile) make him a hero in this film.

The film makes a strong connection between those living on the fringes of society and their ability to identify things other people don’t value. This diverse group includes: alcoholics; immigrants; gypsies; self-supporting, non-commercially successful artists; and societal purists.

I like the relationship between still-good food and still-good and meaningful stuff that might have a new use, new life and new meaning in someone else’s possession. Although I don’t think anyone would categorize historic preservation as a fringe concern anymore, I do think preservationists are kin to Varda’s motley group of outsiders if only in our ability to see value and meaning in discards. Negotiating expiration dates is preservation's raison d’etre.


*For those who don’t watch food films or read about the subject, Monsanto is an evil empire of engineered foods. If you type Monsanto into Google, “Monsanto evil” is the first key word pairing.