French New Wave pioneer Agnes Varda has long displayed a curiosity about people who live on society’s fringes. In her 2000 doc “The Gleaners and I,” the director focuses her camera on communities (and some memorably eccentric individuals) that belong to the French tradition of gathering up what’s left behind after a harvest. Documenting the various gleaners, pickers and dumpster-divers becomes a meditation on the creative process itself as Varda becomes a subject of her own film.

On Filmspotting #632 (Friday, April 27): James Gray’s THE LOST CITY OF Z and the Top 5 Movie Expeditions (We’d Sign Up For).