Wasteland (2010)

In 2010 Rio de Janeiro was home to one of the largest landfills in the world, Jardim Gramacho. The landfill was created by a local team of “pickers” who gathered and recycled materials for money. At the time, over 3,000 workers maintained the landfill, which managed to operate successfully despite the fact that no government assistance was provided. This is how we are introduced to Jardim Gramacho in the documentary film Wasteland (2010). The film follows the pickers and documents how their lives are transformed after can encounter with Brazilian born artist, Vik Muniz, whose unique talent involves incorporating garbage into his art. After much success in his career, he was preparing to give back to his city by working on a project that would feature some of the pickers at Jardim Gramacho. The intention was to “take them away from where they were and show them another world” while also exploring the question “how can art change people?” and whether or not it was even possible. The idea of working on this social project raised a lot of questions for Muniz as he wondered about the dangers of working in this type of environment. However, he is met with quite the contrary as his project begins to unfold and in fact, what ensues is an emotional journey that will forever change the lives of the pickers and how they define what it means to work at the landfill. Using only materials that could be found at the landfill and with the help of his subjects, Muniz created and photographed portraits of the pickers that were brought to life at his local studio. Tiao, president of the association of pickers and one of Muniz’s main subjects is invited accompany Muniz in London where Tiao’s portrait would eventually be auctioned off for $50,000. One can only imagine how life changing this experience was for everyone involved. In particular, this allowed Tiao and the rest of the subjects to see the landfill through an artistic lens and to appreciate themselves as more than just “pickers”. One woman describes how working on this project gave her “the will to change” and another describes how she used to be ashamed to tell people she worked at the landfill and now she tells everyone proudly.