Waste Land

Waste Land is a life changing documentary and a must-see.  Vik Muniz is a Brazilian-born artist who creates art with materials such as chocolate syrup, peanut butter, and recycled materials.  In this documentary he travels to Rio to Jardim Gramacho, the biggest land fill in Rio.  They say about 70% of the city's garbage travels there.  The people in the documentary are called "pickers."  They spend all day sorting through the garbaged to find recyclables to then sell to buyers.  This is their livelihood. "Catadores" are looked down upon by all of society for what they do, but many of them take pride in their jobs.

Muniz spends time with the people of Jardim Gramacho and learns more about their lives.  Through this he creates portraits of the pickers using the materials.  Vik and the pickers work together to create these portraits which are then auctioned off at Phillips de Pury & Company.  The portraits drew big dollars and the money then went to the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho.

I was highly impressed with Muniz's work on this project.  Not only were lives of the pickers changed, but also everyone that learned about it in Brazil and elsewhere.  I respect these people to do something so disgusting to earn a living, when really they could be doing other things that are more socially acceptable like drugs and/or prostitution.  Is that less disgusting?  I also respect the associations efforts to improve recycling in Brazil. Take a look at the website for the movie here

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