Waste Land Documentary

In my GT class we are on the unit of Hunger, Poverty, and War. We just finished watching Waste Land. The movie was a documentary about people in Brazil who are garbage pickers and Vik Muniz is in the movie and his goal is to help them. Vik Muniz is a famous painter who is from Brazil.

I personally like the documentary. It was on the lives of real people and the people are in the movie and you could see how they live. I learned that there are so many people on this planet that aren't fortunate and have to work at places like Jardim Gramacha. Jardim Gramacha is a sanitary waste facility landfill that was established in 1970. The site receives more trash every day than any landfill in the world! 7,000 tons of garbage arrive daily making up 70% of the trash produced by Rio de Janeiro and surrounding areas. These garbage pickers help the people of Brazil because without them materials wouldn't be able to be recycled. They are very important, but they don't get the respect they deserve from people; people just look down on them.

Overall the film really touched me and also shocked me. I was shocked to see the way some of these people were living. I know that there is no way that I can live like that even for a day, and these people live like this everyday, this is their life! The thing that shocked me the most was that some people were happy to be working there! For example Valter liked to work there and he was proud to be a garbage picker. I couldn't believe it. Isis was another person who was in the documentary. She was a garbage picker as well. She didn't like it at all there, but she had to work there because of a tragedy. I liked the film because it showed the lives of people in today's world and the conditions they are living in. I learned an immense amount of new things from the film. I was sad to see the way these people were living and it really got me angry that the government of Brazil wasn't doing anything to help them. They were just ignoring them and all of their hard work and protests! This is wrong, these people are working so hard to keep their country clean and are living in such harsh conditions and they don't receive any credit, respect, or much money! I liked the film because in the end the main charcaters' lives had improved, and I like to see the lives of people who are not as unfortunate improve.

Ms. Mystrena told us a little bit about the Waste Land before we started watching the movie. From what she told us I thought that the film was just about some people who are homeless and pick garbage just like homeless people that you see if you ever go to the city. I didn't expect the film to be so touching, I thought that I was going to see the lives of some homeless people and how they live, but throughout the film my thoughts drastically changed. Throughout the film I saw the lives of people who work so hard everyday and how they live. I saw a mother being separated from her little children for weeks. Suelem was 18 and had two kids who were toddlers or babies, and she couldn't see them for a couple weeks at a time! She has been working at the landfill since she was seven! That is crazy, at the age of seven I was a little second grader! Zumbi was working very hard to bring money home so that he can give his son a proper education. He didn't want his son to be a garbage picker like him, he wanted his son to become successful. Zumbi had been working at the landfill since he was nine years old! My opinion of the movie definitely changed from the beginning. I now think that this was a great film and was very informational.

Vik Muniz is a very great person. After most people who were poor become rich they forget where they came from. Money becomes their life, but not for Vik; he went back to the land where he was born and grew up to help others. Vik went there and made paintings of the people and sold them. The money that he made from selling the paintings was given directly to the people. These people were poor and now they had some money to live better on a daily basis. Vik also opened up their eyes. He didn't make the paintings alone. They all worked together to make them. This gave them all hope that they aren't just garbage pickers, instead they are capable of doing great things too. This hope that they got led to all of them doing other things that they like to do. Zumbi and Tiao built a library with the money that they got. Isis left Gramacho and got married and now works at a supermarket. Vik gave these people the thing they need most; they need to believe in themselves. Vik is a very caring person to do this for them.

The movie actually did make me think how much garbage I produce on a daily basis. I realized that my family produces garbage that goes to landfills like Gramacho. I don't think that I will change the way in which I consume and dispose things. My whole family recycles our garbage. I'm not going to just eat less food so less trash is produced. I know that I will definitely recycle, but I'm not going to change my consuming habits.

There could be other areas of society that could be highlighted in Vik Muniz's artistic way. For example places like Africa where there are very poor people. There are very young children working for over 16 hours a day there and getting paid less than $1! Places like these can be helped through Vik Muniz's artistic way. There are definitely more places in the world that are like Jardim Gramacho. We can't have Vik Muniz use his artistic skills to help every single place, but we can all work together since we are all humans living on planet Earth. We can forget our differences in politics or viewpoints on war and just work together to make the lives of those people who are so hard working, but don't get the proper wage or respect they deserve.