Waste Land

Synopsis & Film Details

Fresno Filmworks presents “Waste Land” at the Tower Theatre. This documentary from Brazil and the UK, which won an Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, follows artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Muniz photographs an eclectic band of “catadores,” or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. The artist’s initial objective was to paint the catadores by using garbage, but his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of trash reveals both the dignity and the despair of the catadores. As the catadores begin to re-imagine their lives, the movie offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art. Directed by Lucy Walker, who also directed “Devil’s Playground” and “Blindsight,” and with a score by electronic musician Moby.