Sun, 06 Jan 2002 08:37:45 -0800

Hello,

I'm Stan McDaniel a good friend of Varda's during the late 60s,and also a friend of Alan Watts, who occupied the other half ofthe Vallejo at the time. I happened to be there on the Vallejo on the day Agnes Varda first visited. Upon seeing the surroundings,she insisted that she would make a movie there the very next day and invited all of us to participate. The next day indeed she showed up with a film crew and made the short "Uncle Yanko" which included some shots of myself as well as Rena Morningstar (later Lou Gottlieb's companion) who was there with me.

I was also at Varda's birthday party at Black Point, and had an adventure with him and two girls in his boat on an occasion we sailed it to a party at Marin Island (the girl with me then was Alicia Bay Laurel who later wrote some popular books). Unfortunately I never had an opportunity to see the film "UncleYanko." So I've been trying to find a copy, hopefully on video. I'm wondering whether you know of the whereabouts of this film and whether any copies are available.

I have in my possession a hand-drawn sketch Varda made of himself "as Shakespeare," a letter he wrote to me on one occasion, and a couple of newspaper photos of him. I would appreciate what assistance you might be able to give.

Om Shanti
Stan McDaniel