Waste Land begins with Vic Muniz, a well-known artist, living in Brooklyn, New York, who decides to return to Brazil, his birthplace, to do an art project that has social relevance. Art that will somehow help the people involved. Muniz’s work mainly combines photography with other media. He has gained recognition worldwide. He decides to go to Rio de Janeiro to photograph “Catadores” who make their living picking recyclable materials out of the huge garbage dump/landfill known as Jardim Gramacho located on the outskirts of Rio. Muniz plans to take photographs of a number people, blow the pictures up, project them as templates and have the individuals participate in painting themselves with the recyclable materials or “garbage” as it’s called in the publicity. Muniz then re-photographs these “portraits.” His plan is to exhibit this work and sell prints with the proceeds going to the “Catadores.”
As much as Waste Land documents the process of creating the art it also, by default, explores the influence of both the artist’s involvement with the subject and the act of making the documentary involving the “pickers” in Muniz’s project. As the story continues, questions regarding the motivation of the artists and their self-proclaimed altruistic goals, becomes apparent.
Director Lucy Walker allows all the contradictions that surface in the telling of the Waste Land story to be seen. Muniz’s, possibly naïve, even self-serving notion that he can somehow use his art to invoke change in someway, is confronted by the social realities of the “pickers.” The individuals interviewed and photographed are in some cases second generation. Many are illiterate. They form a caste at the very bottom of Rio’s multi-tiered society. As the film progresses you meet and learn about six of the “pickers.”
Suelem is a young woman who started picking at age seven, she is now eighteen, with two children who live with her mother in a shack. Suelem is still working. She rents a shelter by the dump during the week and visits her family every two weeks or so. She relates how she eats some of the fresh garbage she comes across. The portrait of her with her two children is quite beautiful and moving. But there doesn’t seem anyway out of this environment for her or the other people interviewed.
Hope springs eternal in the heart and mind of Tião, President and the founder of the Association of Pickers of Jardim Gramacho (ACAMJG) an association he formed to represent the pickers. Tião can read and has created his own library out of found books. If you didn’t know this was a documentary you could see it at some post apocalyptic world in a science fiction movie. During the documentary Tião gets to go to London for an auction of his portrait. It sells for $50,000. In the end Muiz raises over $250,000 dollars from the sale of prints which goes to ACAMJG to help them buy equipment, truck and Tião open a learning center.
There is a scene in Waste Land where the artist and others discuss what impact this whole process will have on the “Catadores,” after they finish working on the project and the chosen few have to go back to picking. Will they want to go back? Will they now be disenchanted with the life they once accepted, perhaps were even happy with? There’s a kind of arrogance in the way this is approached by the artists, as if the “pickers,” were the subjects of some social experiment. The subjects are apparently never really consulted on these matters. There are no sociologists or psychologists involved or any plans to deal with problems that may come up. Everything appears to be resolved by the notion that at the very least the opportunity to experience the project; perhaps travel to London, makes it okay even if in the end you have to return to the garbage dump. You get the feeling that the artists have accepted the self-serving idea that they can make no lasting impact on the lives of the subjects.
Waste Land presents images that are, at times, difficult to stomach. Human beings working day and night in a huge garbage dump/landfill picking recyclable materials out of refuse as soon as it is dumped there. There’s a woman who cooks meals for the workers using “unexpired” discards the supermarkets send to the dump. The film is edited at a decent pace; certain segments seem a little redundant. The cinematography is good overall and in the night scenes at Jardim Gramacho where pickers are working. Some of the “pickers” shown in the film are actually photographed at the dump and this action is documented as it happens. There are a number of scenes shot inside the shacks where certain people live giving the feel of these living conditions. Music by Moby is very good.
Waste Land is an interesting multi faceted documentary. On one level in chronicles artist Vic Muniz, his humble roots growing up in a suburb of San Paolo, to fame and fortune in New York, then back to Brazil in an apparent attempt to “give something back” to his native land.
Next Waste Land brings to light the lives of the “Caladores,” pickers of recyclables from Jardim Gramacho the largest garbage dump in the world, (These scenes are reminiscent of similar situations in third world countries) and the sub-culture they are part of by intimately profiling several of the “pickers.”
At the same time the question of exploitation by artists, intentionally or unintentionally has to be considered. Are the artists well intentioned, self-indulgent or unable to comprehend the enormity of the problems? What is the responsibility of the artist or the filmmakers to the subjects? To everyone’s credit an attempt to address these issues is made and shown in the documentary.
Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker is an honest documentary that attempts an exploration of the shadows of perceived reality in the hope of finding some glimmer of truth. This is an excellent documentary that deals with many issues on many levels.
There are some positive outcomes for the “pickers of recyclable materials” by the end of the film. But their future is in doubt as Rio plans to shut down the landfill in 2012. In all due respect to the “Huffington Post;” and its reviewer’s quote used in the Waste Land trailer, likening this documentary to the fictional feature Slumdog Millionaire is bizarre. There are no millionaires here and no “Bollywood” ending.
J R Martin
Trailer
Tags: Art, Artist, Brazil, catadores, Documentary Film Review, garbage, Jardim Gramacho, Landfills, Photography, Vic Muniz, Waste Land
[...] “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley [...]
“To change the lives of people with the same material they work with every day.” Vik Muniz said. And that is exactly what this documentary is about. Vik Muniz, the main character in this story, is an artist who spends two years in his native country of Brazil working on several art projects. The story develops well and efficiently, starting with an introduction to Vik, his wife and child, and his work. He is interviewed in different places at his home such as the kitchen or his library to expose his environment and comfort zone. Then, this is followed by this idea of a project he has that brings up a dilemma between him and his wife. He plans to go to Jardim Gramacho, the largest garbage sanctuary in the world, which is situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his childhood city. We are also introduced to Fabio, his working partner, through a webcam.