Film Review: Wasteland

Film Review

Wasteland

The film Wasteland is directed by Lucy Walker and Karen Harley. It stars the renowned artist Vik Muniz as he joins Brazilian garbage pickets who mine treasure from the trash heaps of Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho landfill. Vicente Jose De Oliveira Muniz, most know him as Vik Muniz, was born in 1961 in São Paulo. He is a visual artist who happens to be living in New York City, in my opinion one of the greatest places to see or do any kind of art. Muniz began his career as a sculptor in the late 1980s and from there he "gradually became more interested in photographic reproductions of his work, eventually turning his attention exclusively to photography."

I happened to love Vik Muniz's work it is truly art, beautiful art. His photographs are the kinds of pictures that leave you staring and thinking critically about the meaning of the piece. the way you have to look so deeply into his images to really see what is meant for you to see. "They are flat photographs that transpose beyond 3-dimensional space." I could not have said it better myself. It is truly amazing not many artists can do this.

Wasteland is Victor Muniz's first and only movie and it was beautifully made. it clearly illustrated the day to day struggles that the people living in poverty have to go through. There are many times where I take things that seems so simple like water or even school for granted. I, along with many others fail to remember that more than half of the things we waste, others would give their soul for. Poverty is alive and strong, and millions are suffering because of it. As I watch the people rummage through the garbage, I realize that this is their version of shopping. What saddens me the most is the fact that a large number of the children will grow up to be like their parents and live as pickers. This film is evokes a number of emotions, if you have a heart it will not be hard for you to feel a small portion of the pain that these people live with. Still, it amazes me that Muniz can still find beauty in a pile full of garbage.

He takes this beautiful, emotional photographs and blows them up and seemingly draws them. He then takes the garbage that these people are surrounded with every day and surrounds the pictures with it. His work caused some of the people that were photographed to see themselves differently, the art is so beautiful to them that they no longer see themselves in the trash or as apart of the trash.  In a way Vik Muniz has given those people a glimpse of hope and really that's all one needs. I like the fact that he uses sugar to draw the children, as he said it represents the sweetness of the children. He mixes his art with social projects. People say art can change people and he wanted to see if this statement is true. He takes things that would ordinarily be described as negative and turns them into something positive. It is like he is sending a message saying just because times are hard doesn't mean that you cannot use what you have and take advantage of it, or if you can try to see the goodness in things even if others cannot.

R. I. P. Valter