Ryan McNeil
Nineteen docs into this festival…and I might have just watched my favorite.
WASTE LAND is a documentary from Brazil about a project by artist Vik Muniz. Muniz went back to his native Brazil, where outside of Sao Paolo is a landfill dump named Gardin Gramacho. Because Sao Paolo has no recycling program, the dump is home to hundreds of pluckers. These people sift through the trash and remove 200 tons of recyclable material daily. As Muniz learns more and more about who these pluckers are, and what their story is, he offers to help.
If some of them will assist him with his latest creations, he’ll donate every penny of the sale of said pieces to their recycling program…hopefully landing them enough to get more organized and invest in proper facilities. What ensues is a story about environmentalism, humanitarianism, and artistic vision.
Muniz’s vision begins with simple photographic portraits of the pluckers. It grows in meaning when they become installation pieces the size of a warehouse floor. They become even more meaningful when he has the pluckers themselves assist him in their creation. Suddenly men and women who are used to being knee-deep in trash, earning a pittance a day in a hazardous workplace become artists. Moreover, they become very expressive and proud artists.
Thing is, the pride is already in them. Many of them proudly proclaim to be pluckers. Seems odd at first, but upon reflection, what’s not to be proud of? They are working hard to lessen their hometown’s impact on the environment. As many of the women point out, it’s more respectable than selling their bodies to support themselves and their families.
The art they create with Muniz is mind-blowing. The lengths Muniz goes to in order to give back to his home country is inspiring. And what these [pluckers learn about themselves as they undertake the project is achingly moving. WASTE LAND received one of the loudest reactions I’ve witnessed at the festival this year, and when one also considers its award-winning turn at Sundance, I’d venture it’s a safe bet that we haven’t seen the last of this doc yet.
Official sitE for WASTE LAND