A documentary about the 'art' of scavenging raises some uncomfortable ethical questions
This Oscar-nominated documentary by Lucy Walker is about the Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz and his work with the "pickers", or catadores, who eke out an existence scavenging scraps from Rio's colossal city garbage dump. The title avowedly refers to Ts Eliot's poem, but what Walker thinks she's showing us in her handful of dust is not fear, but life-affirming hope. Some might find the movie's take-home optimism naive and Muniz's attitude itself open to question. But this is undoubtedly a bold raid into an unknown territory – both geographic and conceptual – that the prosperous classes prefer not to think about.
When we throw out rubbish, it is easy to assume that it somehow vanishes. In fact, of course, it largely goes to landfill sites such as Jardim Gramacho in Rio De Janeiro: the world's biggest dump, a huge,...
This Oscar-nominated documentary by Lucy Walker is about the Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz and his work with the "pickers", or catadores, who eke out an existence scavenging scraps from Rio's colossal city garbage dump. The title avowedly refers to Ts Eliot's poem, but what Walker thinks she's showing us in her handful of dust is not fear, but life-affirming hope. Some might find the movie's take-home optimism naive and Muniz's attitude itself open to question. But this is undoubtedly a bold raid into an unknown territory – both geographic and conceptual – that the prosperous classes prefer not to think about.
When we throw out rubbish, it is easy to assume that it somehow vanishes. In fact, of course, it largely goes to landfill sites such as Jardim Gramacho in Rio De Janeiro: the world's biggest dump, a huge,...
- 2/25/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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