Modern artist Vik Muniz describes art as a thing of transformation, the ability to take something ugly or plain and mold it into something beautiful or socially poignant.
In its humble beginnings just profiling Muniz, the documentary “Waste Land” goes through such a transformation when it travels to Rio de Janiero and finds a thriving, happy and environmentally crucial community of garbage pickers in the world’s largest landfill.
Following the norm of many of the best documentaries ever made, “Waste Land” completely changes focuses mid-filming when Muniz sets out to make a difference at Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill on the planet, and does not discover a city of drug addict, wastoid scavengers but a group of intellectuals who have established a comfortable living for themselves. Continue reading “Waste Land”