(2010) In Rio de Janeiro contemporary artist Vik Muniz, accompanied by his studio director Fabio, spent two years among the catadores (pickers who sort through recyclable materials, collecting up to 200 tons per day) of Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill (receiving 7,000 tons of trash a day) in the world.

Originally a poor Brazilian from Sao Paolo, Vik got a lucky break after getting shot by mistake and sent to the US for treatment. He has a studio in Brooklyn where he's married and has a child; MOMA displays his artworks on its walls, describing them as made "from unlikely materials including dirt, diamonds, sugar, wire, string, chocolate syrup, peanut butter, and pigment."

Director Lucy Walker with co-directors Karen Harley and Joćo Jardim made a documentary of the project that transformed trash into art and returned dignity to people. With his own material needs and wants met, he says he wanted to give something back by changing the lives of a group of people, using the same materials they deal with everyday by mixing his art with social projects.

In the landfill ("Not as bad as I thought it would be"), "a city of garbage" where people are treated like the trash they dig through, he found subjects for his camera. Well-organized, the catadores are supportive of one another and expert judges of the class of people whose garbage they filter for items of value.

Tićo, president of the Association of Pickers ("Nobody believed in us"), representing 3,000 catadores, speaks of having found and read a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince; he poses like Marat in a bathtub. Articulate ("99 is not 100") and proud to be a picker for 26 years - saying that being poor isn't bad, though being rich without morals is shameful - Valter, the association's vice president, agrees with Vik's project since if nothing else it may "raise awareness."

Isis, however, a pretty woman who's embarrassed at being photographed when she's dirty, admits to hating the work, though it pays well ($20-$25 a day). For nearly 30 years Irma has been cooking meals for the pickers, preparing soups from the refuse dumped in the landfill; Vik photographs her facing away with her strong arm balancing a pot on her head.

When her husband lost his job, Magna became a picker, saying it's "better than turning tricks in Copacabana." Ever since she was seven, Suelem, then 18, has been working in Jardim Gramacho to support her two young children, proud of the fact that she's neither a drug addict nor a whore; Vik creates an image of her as a Madonna with her son and daughter.

Bringing his models to a studio, Vik first photographs them, next makes an enormous opaque projection of the photographic image onto the floor, then recreates the picture with recyclable objects and dirt (on film the image develops form through speeded-up animation), before finally photographing again to make the final portrait.

As he considers taking the pickers with him to London for the auction (the proceeds going to the catadores), Vik and his wife debate whether he's changing people (letting them "see another reality") for the better or the worse. What at first seemed like crazy crap to Tićo, art has come to mean something worth being a part of and having.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2011 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .