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Waste Land

  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
9.5K
YOUR RATING
Waste Land (2010)
Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Play trailer2:16
2 Videos
21 Photos
Documentary

On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers... Read allOn the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.

  • Directors
    • Lucy Walker
    • Karen Harley
    • João Jardim
  • Star
    • Vik Muniz
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.8/10
    9.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Lucy Walker
      • Karen Harley
      • João Jardim
    • Star
      • Vik Muniz
    • 24User reviews
    • 86Critic reviews
    • 78Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 29 wins & 13 nominations total

    Videos2

    Waste Land
    Trailer 2:16
    Waste Land
    Lucy Walker in Three Films
    Clip 3:12
    Lucy Walker in Three Films
    Lucy Walker in Three Films
    Clip 3:12
    Lucy Walker in Three Films

    Photos21

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    Top cast1

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    Vik Muniz
    Vik Muniz
    • Self
    • Directors
      • Lucy Walker
      • Karen Harley
      • João Jardim
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews24

    7.89.4K
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    Featured reviews

    8maltese-stallion

    An inspiring and energetic work of art

    "Waste Land" is a film that I picked up with interest. While the cover-art of the documentary caught my attention, the film itself proved to be much more complex, engaging, and fascinating, than I had originally imagined. A great documentary that captures: a time, place, and the ideology of a social group, working in the background of the ever present, cultural ideology.

    Lower class lives are explored in a manner which not only illuminates the struggles that these individuals must go through, on a day to day basis, but also makes it clear that the cultural environment ; or landscape in Brazil, is changing.
    JohnDeSando

    Not a waste to watch

    Vic Muniz's art has never been as influential as when he decided to spend 2 years at the world's largest landfill outside of Rio. The catadores or pickers became his subjects, a ragtag group of Shakespearean types who love what they do for a living, making something out of someone else's nothing. Waste land is the title for this engrossing documentary about art as few have experienced it till now.

    Making a living is what they made until Muniz changed the way they looked a recyclables. He bonded the artifacts with the humans and created memorable portraits of the pickers. A show in London, which they attended, became a catalyst for change in their lives and in the lives of spectators who had no idea Rio's garbage had become Rio's recyclables under the hands of these professional pickers.

    Muniz makes sure no one condescends, no one feels sorry for his subjects, some of whom have never known anything but the landfill and others who have chosen it rather than deal drugs or prostitute themselves. Waste Land is as dignified a story about the potential of the poor class to rise out of its garbage and transform it into art and a better life. For this reason, Muniz can stand with the great humanitarians like Albert Schwitzer and Mother Theresa.
    9jm@downtownreel.com

    Art helps recycle lives!

    This film is a remarkable surprise! A clever, concerned, screen-grab of homeless lives that gives an ounce hope where one would least expect it. Internationally acclaimed artist, Vik Muniz, is our guide on a journey through garbage, guts, and glamor. With a smile on his face that belies many of the bleak images he shares, he outlines what is, perhaps, an early chapter in the "ecological medical journal" that must be written to save our planet. The characters in Waste Land by far overwhelm this 'preachy' review, and are 1,000 times warmer, to boot -- go see it before it's gone -- to NETFLIX -- As proceeds from your ticket save lives!
    Chrysanthepop

    Recycling Yourself

    I had only heard little about 'Waste Land' and didn't know what to expect other than be introduced to some artworks by Vik Muniz. Also the concept of making art from garbage and involving the garbage pickers who work at the dumpsite got me curious. What I got from this film in the end was far more than what I expected. The camera follows Muniz to the world's largest waste land in Rio de Janeiro. One by one the viewer is introduced to some of the people who work there while Muniz proposes his project to them. The people, who are considered by many, to be of the lowest of classes, are portrayed beautifully as high spirited people, in this film. Just like any other common working human being, the pickers work hard to provide for their families and many of them are quite proud of what they do . There is also a wonderful sense of unity. What Muniz offers them is to be a part of something big, to dream again. It's a sight to behold, when the workers' faces light up as they realize they are becoming/ have become a part of something unique, beautiful and important. These are three adjectives that I'd additionally use to describe this inspiring, insightful and unique gem.
    8nesfilmreviews

    A simply wonderful documentary

    An moving documentary highlighting the transformative power of art, and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz rooted in New York decides to give back to a community where he was born and raised. He travels to Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. With the intention to help the pickers to improve their lives using his art, what starts as an introduction to the devastating poverty and lack of infrastructure in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, begins to transform into a story of unrelenting spirit, strength, and inspiration. Perhaps director Lucy Walker initially 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. We see where they live, we meet their families, we hear their stories, we learn of the society and economy they have constructed around Jardim Gramacho, the "Garbage Garden." Zumbi, a member of the association, who began a library from his home from books that had been discarded, Irma, a cook who makes stews and roasts from edible meat to feed the workers, Suelem, an 18-year old girl who has been working in the garbage dump since she was only seven years old, and Valter, an elderly man who entertains with stories and songs and who decides to participate because he believes that "it will raise awareness of all us pickers." Once the initial photographs are made, Muniz projects an enlarged version of each photo onto the floor of his studio and hires the pickers to add refuse from the landfill onto the canvas, photographing the result from overhead. This then becomes the finished art work, ready to be exhibited at auctions and museums around the world-- with the pickers traveling to such cities as London and New York, the first time they have ever left Gramacho. (Heavily debated decision and the possible ramifications.) Life is unpredictable that way. "Waste Land" is a testament that things can go from good to bad in an instant. But they can also improve just as quickly. A social documentary based around a self reliant community of people disregarded and largely ignored, who find unrealized beauty in their everyday work, modern art, and in themselves. I can never again put out my recycling bin without giving thought to how much more this film communicates than just that.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The Gramacho landfill was in fact deactivated in 2012. It is now a green area once again, wherein its native life has returned. However, many of the pickers forced into retirement were left without jobs and in poor quality of life.
    • Quotes

      Valter: [talking about the importance of recycling] People sometimes say "But one single can?" One single can is of great importance. Because 99 is not 100, and that single one will make the difference.

    • Connections
      Featured in The 83rd Annual Academy Awards (2011)
    • Soundtracks
      Isolate
      Written by Moby

      Performed by Moby

      Produced by Moby

      Moby appears courtesy of © Little Idiot Music

      Published by Richard Hall Music, Inc

      Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing Limited

      All rights reserved

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    FAQ17

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 21, 2011 (Brazil)
    • Countries of origin
      • Brazil
      • United Kingdom
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • Portuguese
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Wasteland
    • Filming locations
      • Jardim Gramacho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil(landfill)
    • Production companies
      • Almega Projects
      • O2 Filmes
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $1,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $187,716
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $9,806
      • Oct 31, 2010
    • Gross worldwide
      • $291,307
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 39 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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