Summary Of The Waste Land By Vik Muniz

752 Words2 Pages

Filmed for nearly three years, Waste Land follows famed artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho, situated on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eccentric band of catadores, otherwise known as garbage pickers. The catadores are a definitive marginalized populace; jobless in any conventional sense, they turn to picking profitable recyclable materials from the junk discarded by those in Brazil luckier than themselves. Depicted in the documentary is a culture unlike any other that I have ever seen. The people within this isolated culture live in the most horrifying conditions imaginable. They are isolated from society along with the essence of life itself; their homes and lives revolve around a place filled with garbage, trash, and discarded and unwanted items. Therefore, it is impossible to fathom how the people that dwell here don't feel as …show more content…

He was able to remove the individuals who lived in the landfill out of their daily environments, which for them I feel was much needed. He helped the individuals to be able to escape their own realities, even if it was only for a few hours in the art studio. The artist also helped to give purpose and meaning to the individuals through letting them work and be closely involved with him on the art projects. Not that the individuals didn't already have purpose or meaning, but the artist was able to give them an even greater sense of each. Speaking of art' the fact that the artist wants to "paint" the catadores with the trash they spend their days dealing with and he chooses to incorporate several of the catadores and their stories into his art, shows what an impact these people had on him. At last, dynamic, complex, and substantially human representations rise, uncovering both nobility and hopelessness as the catadores start to reconsider their

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