"What happens in the world's largest trash city will transform you."
These words are what first meet your eye when you visit the website for "Waste Land", an inspiring documentary that changed my entire outlook on how we serve others. The documentary follows Vik Muniz all the way to Rio de Janeiro as he begins on a three year project in Jardim Gramacho, the worlds largest garbage dump. As an artist native to Brazil, he feels a special connection to the land and to those who make their living picking up recyclables in the trash there. His intention is to go there, do portraits, then leave. It doesn't take much time before he starts focusing less on the people's portraits, and more on the people. It's very difficult to explain, but when you watch this it will make sense, trust me. Something just comes across in this documentary that can't be explained through a keyboard. I was so glad to have seen it, and glad to know that even when people fall on hard times, they are still people. They are people of life, hopes, fears, dreams, and astounding courage. Vik just wants the world to see that too.
This movie deeply touched me as well. First of all, I thought Vik is an astounding artist. It is amazing the artwork he is able to make from garbage, and dirt. I can't even make that good of artwork with a pencil and piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I too thought it was amazing how much Vik cared about the well-being of these people. As opposed to many other people in the world, Vik spent the time to get to know them, and learned to care about them. You are absolutely correct that his focus changed as the project went on.
I think we all could use this movie as an example in our lives. Most people in college are worried about their own well-being (at least I do, I can't speak for everyone) and forget to think about others. Vik had everything he could want, but all he wanted to do was help people. We should want to help people as well.
I definitely love Muniz' focus on the people as well. Yes, they're making great artwork, but it's what the people are doing and what they get to do and how their lives are transformed that really makes the movie super good. Also, I didn't even know there was a website... cool!
ReplyDelete