The enchanting, often moving documentary/road movie FACES PLACES (VISAGES VILLAGES,) is co-directed by Agnes Varda, 89, one of the leading figures of the French New Wave, and acclaimed French photographer and muralist JR, who’s 33.
Acclaimed at this year’s Cannes Film Fest, and a selection of the Telluride, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, the film will open October 6 at Lincoln Plaza and the Quad Cinemas, in New York, followed by a national roll out.
Varda and JR share a lifelong passion for images and how they are created, displayed and shared. Together they travel around the villages of France in JR’s photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories and producing epic-size portraits of them.
Their photos are prominently displayed on houses, barns, storefronts and trains revealing the humanity in their subjects, and themselves.
FACES PLACES documents these heart-warming encounters as well as the unlikely, tender friendship they formed along the way, resulting in life-affirming and truly inspirational work.
Born in Belgium in 1928, Agnes Varda started out as a photographer and went on to found the cooperative Ciné-Tamaris to produce and direct her first feature, La Pointe Courte in 1959. Since then, without any formal training, she has gone on to direct features and shorts, both fiction and documentaries, including the acclaimed Cleo from 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I and The Beaches of Agnes.
In 2003, she began her third career as a visual artist at the Venice Biennale. Her photographs are now shown in museums and galleries around the world. She was married to Jacques Demy, the legendary director of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, and Lola, with whom she raised Rosalie Varda-Demy, costume designer turned artistic director, and Mathieu Demy, actor and filmmaker.
Born in Paris in 1983, JR splits his time between Paris and New York. In 2001, after finding a camera in the Paris Metro, he began documenting his adventures in the subway and on rooftops, then pasting the pictures on outdoor city walls, marking the beginning of his work with monumental black and white photos. JR reveals the faces and stories of people who aren’t visible, from French slums to Turkey, from Times Square to the Panthéon in Paris, the ghettos of Kenya and the favelas of Brazil, attracting the attention of people who don’t typically visit museums, and engaging them in the process.
Agnès Varda, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Fest, is the recipient of the 2017 Honorary Oscar.
Faces Places is also:
Official selection: 2017 New York Film Festival
Official selection: 2017 Telluride Film Festival
Official selection: 2017 Toronto Film Festival, Masters
