Waste Land

A 2010 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, Waste Land is both an art documentary and an affecting, upbeat portrait of an impoverished subculture in Brazil. Vik Muniz, a New York City–based artist from the lower classes of Sao Paolo says he got his big break when his trip to America was financed by a monied benefactor remorseful about mistakenly shooting him in a street brawl. Muniz proceeded to become Brazil's best-known artist, chiefly creating large-format photographs of multimedia sculptures and trompe l'oeil installations manufactured from garbage and cast-offs. In Waste Land, Muniz undertakes a two-year project at Jardim Gramacho, Rio's largest dump, which absorbs 70 percent of the city's detritus from both ghettoes and wealthy neighborhoods. Muniz gracefully recedes into the background as the narrative shifts focus to the micro-business of shanty-dwellers who forsake the street life of drugs and prostitution to instead earn a marginal living combing through the discards for recyclable materials. So entrenched is this hardscrabble occupation that those who undertake it even have their own professional association. Viewers get to know the individual trash-gleaners and their backstories and witness how their lives change (or don't) when Muniz's portraits of them go on gallery exhibit and command unbelievable prices at international art auctions. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)