Uncle Yanco


Black Panthers


La réponse de femmes


Plaisir d’amour en Iran

These short films made in the late sixties and seventies are both political and playful, in keeping with the times. A snapshot of Bay Area hippiedom in full flower, Uncle Yanco (1967) is a portrait of Varda’s uncle, Sausalito artist Jean Varda (to whom the filmmaker was introduced by former PFA curator and film producer Tom Luddy). The film’s images are as vibrant as Yanco’s paintings and the man himself. An important document of a different facet of Bay Area culture, Black Panthers (1968) documents rallies in Oakland demanding Huey Newton’s release from prison, and features activists including Stokely Carmichael, Kathleen Cleaver, and Newton. La Réponse de femmes (1975) is a feminist “ciné-tract,” a series of frontal tableaux in response to the question “What does it mean to be a woman?” In Plaisir d’amour en Iran (1976), filmed in Ispahan, Iran, Varda considers the relationship between eros and architecture, sacred and profane.

—Juliet Clark

• Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco) (U.S., 1967, 22 mins, In English, Color, 35mm). Black Panthers (U.S., 1968, 30 mins, In English, B&W, 16mm). La réponse de femmes (Women’s Answer) (France, 1975, 8 mins, In French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm). Plaisir d’amour en Iran (France, 1976, 6 mins, In French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm).

• (Total running time: 66 mins, From Ciné-Tamaris)