Waste Land

Waste Land is a film unlike any other I have seen before. Filmed over a period of nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz and his journey from his current home in Brooklyn to his native land Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro (“Waste Land”). In Gramacho, he photographs a select number of “catadores”, or pickers of recyclable materials. He and his catadores then recreate the pictures using garbage from the dump. Vik wants to change the lives of this group of people with the same material they deal with every day. And he succeeds.  

It is incredibly moving to hear the stories of each picker. An 18-year-old woman (depicted with her children in the middle image above) has been working at Gramacho since she was seven years old to help her family. She explains that she is not ashamed to be a picker because it allows her to provide for her new young family and is a far better job than other girls choose, like prostitution.

The film follows Vik and the catadore, Tiaõ, to London where they auction Tiaõ’s portrait (the one on the right above). Tiaõ is president of the ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho), a co-operative he created to improve the lives of his fellow catadores. Inspired by the political texts he found in the waste, Tiaõ had to convince his co-workers that organizing their efforts could make a difference (“Waste Land”). Tiaõ, a picker since age 11, is overwhelmed with emotion to witness the auction of his portrait for $50,000. Vik gave all the money to the ACAMJG, the organization Tiaõ had worked so hard for, even when no one believed in him.

It brought me to tears watching Tiaõ at the auction. I was alsmo moved to see the other catadores receiving copies of their own portraits and the whole group together in front of their exhibit at the Rio de Janeiro museum. Each individual’s life was changed through this experience with Vik because it allowed them to re-imagine their lives and aim for a different future.

I would highly recommend this film to all of you. The trailer is below.

Sources Consulted

"Waste Land." Waste Land Movie. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

<http://www.wastelandmovie.com/synopsis.html>.

Orphans Waiting on the Train Tracks

This is another of Sebastião Salgado’s photographs included in his book, “Migrations” (to learn a bit about Sebastião, go here or here). It was taken in March, 1997. The photograph is of a Rwandan refugee orphan by the village of Biaro in Zaire. He is one of about 1,000 orphans whose parents died because of sickness, lack of food, and exhaustion.

Sebastião describes how orphans were lined up along the railroad tracks and told to await food—that never arrived. Many laid on the grass awaiting medical care, but there was no medicine left. Four days earlier, Sebastião explains, a relief train travelled 50 miles to distribute 120 tons of food, provided by the World Food Program, to the thousands of refugees along the railway tracks. At Biaro, each family received barely one pound of food. For shelter they had tents provided by the UN or makeshift plastic tents. “They are left to die in the sun, although those removing the corpses are never sure whether the person is dead or still breathing” (Salgado), Sebastião says.

The refugee situation in Zaire at the time was desperate. “No one knows the exact number of Hutu [the attacked tribe] who fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994, but the UNHCR after described this as the largest dislocation of a population its aid workers had ever witnessed” (Hatzfield). With the refugee crisis today, consisting of mostly Syrian refugees, we face similar problems of how to best get supplies distributed to those in need. It is extremely difficult to get food, shelter, and medical supplies to everyone, but it is important to continue distributing everything we can.

Sebastião’s picture of the little boy really touched me. He is so young and week, and is in need of food and care. He has no shoes, only tattered clothes, and no one to look after him. It makes me so sad to think of all the refugee children like him across the world today.

Works Cited

Hatzfield, Jean. "The Refugee Crisis." UNHCR Described It as the Largest Dislocation of a

Population They Had Ever Seen. Vanishing Point, 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. 98. Photograph. New York:

Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 25. Print.

The Lost Boys of Sudan

“The Lost Boys of Sudan” is a group of 25,000 young men who fled war in Sudan alone as children in the 1980s. These boys, young teenagers to small babies, watched family members get killed, were forced to flee into the forest, then across the border into Ethiopia, through Ethiopia, and finally to Kenya. At the border of Kenya, those who had not died on the journey received aid from humanitarian organizations and formed refugee camps. As of 1996, UNICEF had reunited approximately 1200 boys with their families, but 17,000 were left in camps.

God Grew Tired of Us is a 2006 documentary film that follows the lives of three lost boys, John, Panther, and Daniel. The film begins with the boys, in their late teens and early twenties, about to leave their camp and the “brothers” they had experienced so much with, to start a new life in New York. You watch them get on a plane, enter an apartment, turn on a light switch, open a fridge, try a shower, and go to a grocery store, all for the first time.

I was fascinated watching this film. There is so much that I completely take for granted. I was in disbelief hearing John talk about being a thirteen-year-old boy, leading hundreds of starving others through wilderness, burying countless little bodies, searching for safety, wondering if any of his family was still alive.

In New York, the boys worked two to four jobs each. They were surprised at how little time Americans have to spend with their families. They commented on how alone and confused they felt, trying to adapt to a new culture, but finding no one willing to simply talk to them or answer questions. I tried to imagine being suddenly plunged into a new culture, expected to figure it out on my own, away from those who loved and understood me. America was no “happily ever after” for the boys. I think we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that once we let refugees enter our countries we have done our part and all will be well. However, watching John, Panther, and Daniel made me realize we can and should reach out so much more, even if it is only in simple ways.

Watching these three boys changed my perspective on refugees and migrants like them. I only heard about three. Think how many thousands more stories there are untold, and how many thousands more lives there are to be changed.  

I would highly recommend this film to you. The trailer is bellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32IxyvoSZKo