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Uncle Yanco
Oncle Yanco
While in San Francisco to promote her latest film, Agnès Varda gets a tip from an acquaintance. In Sausalito, a town in the San Francisco Bay Area, there lives a Greek painter named Jean Varda. Could they be related?
As soon as they meet, they discover this is not only the case, but that they are also kindred spirits. Enthusiastic about the encounter, Varda quickly finds a 35mm camera and, over the course of two days, films a playful portrait of ‘Uncle Yanco’—who is actually her cousin, whom she had never heard of before.
This meeting of two creative minds is reenacted in multiple takes in French, English, and Greek. They view the world through an imaginative and colorful lens. With his drooping mustache and pastel pink sweater, bohemian bon vivant Yanco guides Varda, and the viewer, through his universe, including the hippies who group around him, his collage-like paintings of Byzantine cities, and his deep love of the sea.
Bio Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (1928-2019) was a Belgian-born French film director. She studied Art History at the École du Louvre and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts but also held a Bachelor’s in Literature and Psychology from the Sorbonne. While working as a photographer, Varda became interested in making a film, even though she knew little about the industry. Varda’s feature film debut was La Pointe Courte (1955), but her film Cléo de 5 à 7 (1961) established her name and became a landmark of the French New Wave. Varda wanted to make films in line with her time, rather than focusing on traditions or classical standards.
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- This film was #78 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025