CANCELLED: Uncle Yanco & Black Panthers

In these two short films made during a visit to California, Agnès Varda turns her camera on an Oakland demonstration against the imprisonment of Black Panthers cofounder Huey P. Newton (Black Panthers), and on the houseboat-dwelling Yanco, a Greek emigrant relative she’s never met (Uncle Yanco). 

Uncle Yanco (1967, DCP, 19 minutes) (second picture above) In her effervescent first California film, Agnès Varda delves into her own family history. The short documentary Uncle Yanco features Varda tracking down a Greek emigrant relative she’s never met, discovering an artist and kindred soul leading a bohemian life in Sausalito. Cosponsored with the French Studies Program.

Black Panthers (1968, DCP, 28 minutes) (first picture above) Agnès Varda turns her camera on an Oakland demonstration against the imprisonment of activist and Black Panthers cofounder Huey P. Newton. In addition to evincing Varda’s fascination with her adopted surroundings and her empathy, Varda’s outsider perspective gives room to a powerful political statement.

website: janusfilms.com/films/1633