Mexican director Lila Avilés, whose debut feature The Chambermaid / La camarista was a hit on the international film circuit and one of the best reviewed films of 2019 in its U.S. theatrical release, has created a short film to pay tribute to the late French New Wave icon Agnès Varda. Varda was born on this day in 1928, and died on March 29 of last year.
The short film, simply entitled A video for Agnès V. / Un video para Agnès V., juxtaposes images shot on the seashores of Mexico and California with a voice-over by the Belgian-born French filmmaker. “I was originally interviewed for the promotional campaign of the Mexican theatrical release of Varda by Agnès, by the distribution company Piano. Yet I felt that interview fell short of my feelings on her beautiful film, so I decided to do something special for Agnès.” says Avilés on the impetus behind her short film.
“I always carry my camera with me wherever and whenever I travel. And coincidentally, around those days last December, I was close to the sea participating at the Tulum Film Festival and in Los Angeles participating in the Oscar campaign for The Chambermaid. It was on those travels that I made this little tribute. These days, being at home, I started to watch many of Agnès' interviews, and that made me reassess, over and over again, her persona and her living relationship to art. It seems to me that the vitality, enthusiasm, and commitment that she kept throughout her journey are fundamental to [her process], to always rethink each step that one takes as a filmmaker, but even more deeply as part of a whole, of humanity and its living relationship with nature and society.”
Watch the short film:
