‘Documenteur‘ is an interesting essay, but not one of the milestones in the filmography of Agnès Varda. The film follows a French woman, just out of a relationship, looking for housing and than living for a while in a non-proviledged neighborhood of Los Angeles. It’s an interesting combination – fiction inspired from the biography of the director who at that point in her life was separated, the lead role is played by Sabine Mamou, her only film as an actress, while the kid is Mathieu Demy, Agnes Varda’s son (and formidable acting as a kid – he will become later a professional actor). Much of the rest is film in the streets with non-professional actors, with some nude and sex scenes interleaved to make us feel the loneliness of the character. A verbose text translates to us in parallel her feelings. The combination is interesting, but there is no real story here, and the film is too short, and its ending to abrupt to make complete sense. My overall feeling was to have watched a filmed essay, an experimental movie, but not really a full feature film. As I understand, this film is usually screened in tandem with the documentary ‘Mur murs‘ which tells the story of the roots of the street art in Los Angeles and together they cover the period of the director’s stay in California. I would have loved to see the documentary as well, but this was not the case at the screening at our local cinematheque. As a standalone work, ‘Documenteur‘ slightly disappoints, despite of its superb name.