'Waste Land' paints a touching portrait
"Waste Land" provides an intimate look at the lives of the people who pick recycled materials out of Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest garbage dump, right outside of Rio de Janeiro.
Renowned Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz traveled back to his native Brazil for a collaborative project in which he and the garbage dump workers recreated photographs of themselves entirely of recyclable materials found at the dump. The finished work was photographed for later displays. The first of these portraits sold in an auction brought in roughly $50,000, the proceeds benefiting the pickers.
Director Lucy Walker said the filming process, which lasted nearly three years, was a collaboration with Muniz.
"We didn't know what we were doing," she said after the screening Saturday morning. "It was very collaborative."
Despite realizing this close working relationship with the subjects of her film could be frowned upon, she is happy with the product and said she can't believe she was a part of it all.
"It's maybe the best thing I've ever done," she said.
Walker said even though she was faced the extreme poverty every day while working on the film, she had to adhere to a strict "trust and no cash" policy in regard to her film's subjects.
"We're here to make a movie and tell these stories and figure out what we're doing here as human beings," she said.
"Wasteland" provides a complete portrait of a situation extreme poverty while maintaining hope and an ultimately uplifting tone. The overall result is a bittersweet immersion into the stories of people who pull at your heart and stick in your mind.
