Waste Land

The documentary is an extraordinary portrait of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, and the touching story of his experiences with the over 3000 catadores (scavengers of recyclable materials) at the world’s biggest garbage dump, the Jardin Gramacho, located among the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Muniz has dedicated his series “Pictures of Garbage” to them, after having involved them for over two years as protagonists and assistants in the production of portraits and revisitations of some of the most famous masterpieces of contemporary art. As with his sugar-children series, which focused on the faces of the children of Central American plantation laborers, the images chosen by the artist, and the materials taken from the dump which are used to re-draw them, are inextricably linked to tell the people’s stories. Originally from Sao Paulo in Brazil, where he spent his childhood and adolescence, Muniz shows through his work that art and beauty can cause change, redemption and genuineh uman enrichment. Awarded prizes at Sundance and in Berlin, where it also won the Amnesty International Award, “Waste Land’s” soundtrack is by Moby.