Waste Land (2010)

In the documentary "Waste Land", Vik Muniz visits Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill in Brazil, and works with the "pickers" who collect recyclables there to create portraits made of waste. Roger Ebert said in his review of the movie, "Perhaps [Director Lucy] Walker intended to make the film about Muniz. If so, her subject led her to a better one; as he returns to Rio to photograph pickers for a series of portraits, she begins to focus on their lives." This holds very much true, as Muniz becomes our window into the world of the poor that work all day at the landfill. The pickers live hard lives; the work is agonizing and they've all been struck by misfortune and tragedy in some way. However, they also joke, laugh together, and have formed a community that  is lively and energetic despite their miserable condition. One of the workers even collects abandoned books and hopes to form a public library, and Tiao, the organizer of the community, shows an impressive knowledge and understanding of the philosophers whose books he found in the landfill and decided to hold onto. When talking about his art, Muniz discusses how a picture looks different depending on how close you are from it. Up close, you see the materials themselves, but when you step away it stops being material and becomes a broader picture. In this sense, his journey seeks to "zoom in" on the landfill and look at the human element that can't be seen from the distance. The film aims to break down barriers of class and show that the poor are multi-faceted, hard-working, decent people who were just unlucky enough to get stuck in a bad situation. Muniz's portraits give them hope and show them that they have something to be proud of in their life, and they aren't lesser people for their struggles.