Waste Land is a 2010 documentary by Lucy Walker documenting Brazilian artist Vik Muniz' art creations with the help of garbage pickers in Rio's Jardim Gramacho (the "Garbage Garden"), the world's largest landfill. As a youth in São Paulo, Muniz had the "good fortune" to be shot in the leg by a rich kid, who paid him off; he used the money to buy a ticket to America. It is Muniz' grand vision that creates treasure out of trash and restores great human dignity to these catadores (Portuguese for scavengers) as they take great pride in their artistic creations that are auctioned in London and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo. Muniz fashions re-creations of famous paintings, including Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat. The posed photographs are then re-created in giant Seurat-style pointillism with salvaged materials. In the end it is the elite world of art auctions that funnels monetary reward and recognition to these struggling workers.
Muniz' close rapport with six pickers is especially touching. Tiaõ is the head of the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho. Muniz and his wife (his ex by the end of this three-year effort) debate the ethics of taking Tiaõ to London to witness the auction. There is concern that after seeing how the other half lives, he could never return. In the end he makes the trip and is overwhelmed with pride. This is a film that is much more about humanity than about garbage, much more about a culture of catadores than a culture of waste.
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