WASTE LAND (MOTION PICTURE) {4:3 LETTERBOX} (TV)
Summary
This documentary is about modern artist Vik Muniz and his project involving portraits of “catadores,” or trash pickers, who work at the world’s largest landfill in his hometown of São Paolo, Brazil. The program opens with Muniz’s appearance on the popular talk show “Programa do Jô,” during which he discusses his artwork. Footage of a large and elaborate parade in the city is then shown, with the discarded costumes and paraphernalia sitting by the roadside afterwards, waiting to be taken to the dump. Muniz explains the unusual way in which he gained passage to America, and explains his artistic technique, which involves taking photographs and then altering them with everyday materials and substances. He displays some of his earlier work, a series called “Sugar Children,” based off of photographs taken of Caribbean children and drawn in sugar, reflecting their bleak futures in the sugar cane fields. He explains that he finds fine art to be “restrictive” and wants to help change others’ lives using seemingly ordinary tools. Researching the landfill in Brazil, he observes that it is a dangerous place to be and that the people who work there are at “the end of the line,” noting the strong issues of classism in the country. His wife inquires if the project will be safe, due to the health concerns of working around garbage and the drug dealer gangs in the area, but Muniz states that it is worth it and he wants to make a difference.
Muniz and his associate Fabio travel to the landfill, ironically named Jardim Gramacho (“Gramacho Gardens”), and they observe that there is no organized recycling system; everything is simply thrown into the dump together. It is unofficially “staffed” by “pickers,” or “catadores,” who search through the trash and find reusable items; the manager notes that it is run “like a stock exchange,” with various items increasing in value depending on people’s needs. Muniz talks with some of the workers and takes portraits of a few young women, establishing a rapport. The pickers are united in a group known as the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho (“ACAMJG” in Portuguese), led by a man named Tião, who explains that he takes pride in his work, but wants a better life for his children. He is then seen with a group of pickers protesting outside the mayor’s office, stating that the mayor has money for a recycling center but never built it, leading the pickers to organize the trash on their own without financial help. Muniz explains that he wants to create portraits of the pickers with their help out of the recycled goods and then use the money from the sales of the art to benefit the workers. Tião seems impressed at Muniz’s determination, talking about his own drive to create the association and his love of books, which people often throw out in good condition. Another picker, Zumbi, expresses the desire to establish a library using the rescued books.
Muniz and Fabio take aerial photos of the landfill and observe that the “human factor” only comes in when one observes the place closely. Muniz then meets and photographs a man named Valter, vice-president of the ACAMJG, who says that he has worked there for 26 years and is proud of his work, having become an expert in which materials are reusable and preferable. Muniz meets a young woman, Isis, who is less content with her job and says it is “not a future,” growing emotional when she talks about a workplace relationship that ended recently. Tião, however, says he has few complaints, and talks to his young daughter about her dreams of becoming a doctor. He discusses his interest in art and philosophy, particularly Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” and recreates Jacques-Louis David’s painting “La Mort de Marat” for his portrait. Muniz then talks with Irmã, a chef who cooks for the pickers, and she expresses contentment with her work. A woman named Magna discusses the circumstances that led her to taking the job and the embarrassing experience of taking the bus home and smelling like the landfill. Zumbi explains that he started working at the age of nine and was once seriously injured by a trash truck, but recovered with the help of his many friends. Muniz meets a young woman named Suelem who talks about the challenges of living part-time near the landfill, far from her children. She expresses a desire to open a day-care center and work with children as she returns to her home, where she lives with her mother and several other relatives, and reunites with her own young kids.
Tião helps Muniz look through the recycled materials and choose what will be used in the artwork. Muniz and Fabio then examine the photographs and bring the subjects into the studio for a few more shots, and he explains how people often react to contemporary art. They begin work on a piece, blowing up a photo of Suelem and her children and adorning it with other materials by “following the shadows.” Many of the pickers are involved in the group effort of making the art. They suffer a setback, however, when the ACAMJG is robbed and $6,000 worth of wages are stolen, leading a distressed Tião to wonder if it is all worth it. But the work continues, using the discarded costumes from the parade, and the pickers are impressed with the results. Muniz then returns to his family home and visits with his hard-working father and grandmother.
The pickers’ involvement with artwork has a profound effect on them; Isis states that she wants to stay and continue working with Muniz and Fabio rather than returning to the landfill, talking about her difficult life and the death of her young son. Muniz and his wife debate if the radical life changes are good for the pickers and how they will be affected by traveling to Europe for the auction of the art. However, Tião goes to London with Muniz, where the auction is taking place at Phillips de Pury & Company, and observes some of the other art for sale, particularly intrigued by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both Muniz and Tião are nervous as the auction begins, and Tião is overwhelmed with emotion when his Marat-inspired portrait sells for US $50,000. Back at the Jardim Gramacho, Tião and his friends celebrate the success, and sometime later they all attend a showing at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. Muniz reflects on his own ambitions and how his former desire for material things has changed over time, wondering if he was “arrogant” to assume he could help the workers. The pickers receive copies of their portraits, which they all proudly hang in their homes. The film concludes by explaining that the artwork eventually raised over $250,000, which paid for supplies and a learning center for the ACAMJG, complete with library, as Zumbi had dreamed. Updates are given on the characters’ current lives, including the fact that the Jardim is to close in 2012. Tião joins Muniz on “Programa do Jô” and it is revealed that his leadership has led to an international organization of recyclers.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: April 19, 2011 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:39:02
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 104165
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Modern and contemporary art
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Fernando Meirelles … Executive Producer
- Miel de Botton Aynsley … Executive Producer
- Andrea Barata Ribeiro … Executive Producer
- Jackie de Botton … Executive Producer
- Angus Aynsley … Producer
- Hank Levine … Producer
- Peter Martin … Co-Producer
- Emilia Mello … Associate Producer
- Andrea Armentano … Line Producer
- Alex Moreno … Line Producer
- Bianca Corona … Line Producer
- Lucy Walker … Director
- João Jardim … Co-Director
- Karen Harley … Co-Director
- Moby … Music by
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Jacques-Louis David
- Suelem Pereira Dias
- Leide Laurentina da Silva
- Sebastião Carlos dos Santos
- Valter dos Santos
- Isis Rodrigues Garros
- Fabio Ghivelder
- José Carlos de Silva Baia Lopes
- Niccolò Machiavelli
- Vik Muniz
- Magna de França Santos