Wasteland

       
          Last week in my Writing and Rhetoric class, we watched this movie called Wasteland. This movie is about an artist named Vik Muniz who travels to the biggest landfill in the world, Jardim Gramacho. This landfill is the home to many Brazilians called "pickers". These pickers work for a business called the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho. Their job is to sift through the garbage and find recyclable materials. Their job is tedious, smelly, hard, and they do not get paid much. In this movie, Vik goes down to the landfill and talks to the people. He gets to know them, their background stories, and their current situations. Then, he photographs them. He tries to get them in their element, or doing things they love or admire. After he develops the pictures, he enlarges them to the size of the floor of a large warehouse and uses garbage to create these pictures. He ends up selling one of these prints at an auction, and then displays the rest at an art show in Rio De Janeiro.
          The main leader and founder of this organization is a man named Tiao Santos. He gave everything to start this organization. Everyone told him it was useless and impossible. He overcame the constant adversity and created this organization giving people jobs. Unfortunately, it was very expensive. He went to the government to see if they would help fund any part of his plans, but they refused. Despite protests from the ARPJG, the government was stubborn and would not help Tiao and the pickers. That is one of the main things that Vik did. All the money from this project went to Tiao and his organization.
          This movie and story is extremely touching. Vik dedicated so much time to these people who were left with nothing.  A lot of these pickers have no family, no home, and this is their life. One lady that Vik spoke with basically lives at the landfill making sure that the pickers get fed. They stick together as a family. I am especially touched by the story of Tiao. Everyone he knew and loved told him he couldn't succeed. They told him he wasn't smart enough, that the organization was a dumb idea, or that it was an outlandish dream. However, despite this constant negativity, he powered through it and stuck to his dream. His determination and sacrifice for what he believed in was so poignant to me.  loved this movie, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to be informed. It is so eye opening to think that while people in America complain about finding a job, or having to do jobs they don't particularly love, people in Rio De Janeiro are sifting through garbage day after day to try and make a living. I know that every time I talk about refugees, or people in other countries, I say this but we are truly blessed in America. Our struggles and trials that we endure are nothing compared to the problems that attack other countries in the world on a day to day basis.

Here are just a few of the pictures Vik Muniz took: