'Waste Land,' Documentary on Brooklyn Artist and Rio's Garbage Pickers (VIDEO)

A Brooklyn artist visits the garbage dumps of Rio de Janeiro to paint the ragpickers. On the face of it, the project might seem to reek of exploitation. But what if the artist were to involve the locals, auction off the works and donate the proceeds back to the ragpicker community? Then it would become a novel philanthropic strategy, closing the loop between an artist and the people who inspired him. This is the story of Waste Land, the new documentary about Brooklyn's Vik Muniz and residents of the Jardim Gramacho. Muniz's work is valuable, not just as an act of charity or an art project, but as a model for humanitarian intervention. Check out the trailer below and visit their website for more.

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects on Vimeo.

Comments

[Swiftlearner]

02:27 AM on 11/23/2010

"Muniz's work is valuable, not just as an act of charity or an art project, but as a model for humanitarian intervention."
The notion of creating art for the extreme rich from the live of extreme poor is just disgusting, especially disguised with the veneer of charity. So the hypocrisy dances to another tune of human misery once the novelty is gone, without lasting charity and humanitarian intervention.
In the mean time the pimp of the prostitution receives awards and accolades like a modern Robin hood, while the new found contrast of reality collapses around the hopeless ragpickers.
The miserable afterlife of the actors of Slumdog Millionaire pointed out the real casualty.

[artemisvictrix]

02:07 PM on 11/21/2010

Amazing...it put tears in my eyes!

[story1]

01:09 PM on 11/21/2010

looks amazing!