“At the packed Aero [Theater in Santa Monica], the 85-year old godmother of French New Wave Cinema reminisced about the beginning of the Los Angeles muralist movement, the nature of public art, and the role of the documentarian.

“I thought it was a very interesting movement,” said Varda. “At that time nobody knew. There were murals but nobody spoke about them. We just went around taking pictures, investigating with the neighbors, ‘Do you know who did it? When?'”

Varda tracked down the muralists to ask if they would speak on camera. “I wanted to show how a city can express itself,” she said. “It’s really telling a lot about politics, about the situation, about the segregation. Obviously there are no murals in Bel-Air.””