Faces Places (Netflix)

Faces Places is co-directed by the legendary nonagenarian Agnes Varda and photographer JR, some six decades younger than her. The film is all the better because you feel both of their ages seeping through at every corner: it has the energy of a debut filmmaker and the grace of a great filmmaker’s last film. It is a film of beginnings and endings. The film follows Varda and JR as they travel through France, installing JR’s larger-than-life photographic portraits in public places and listening to Varda reflect on a lifetime of creating art. Part travelogue, part buddy comedy, part art documentary, and part autobiography, it feels almost like no other film you have ever seen before. Varda is called the mother of the French New Wave, and if this is really her last film, she is still redefining film right up to the end.

Near the end of the film, someone asks Agnes Varda what the point of it all was. “The point,” she says, “is the power of imagination.” That seems about right. This is entertaining, profound, charming, and the medicine that we all need right now.

I Am Evidence (HBO)

A documentary about rape kits, or more specifically about major cities around America that have stocked up thousands of untested rape kits for decades and left these crimes unsolvable, should be bleak and heart-breaking. I Am Evidence is certainly that. But it is also a hopeful film and leaves you believing that help is on the way. This is because the film, directed by Gasland producer Trish Adlesic and OJ: Made in America editor Geeta Gandbhir, is more interested in those pushing for the truth rather than those who have kept the truth hidden. The film introduces us to a whirlwind of women — survivors, policewomen, prosecutors, and activists — who are making it their mission to get rape kits tested and rapists punished for their crimes. Documentaries too often focus on the problems in law enforcement; I Am Evidence reminds us that there are still solutions being found.