Summary Of The Waste Land By Vik Muniz

752 Words2 Pages

Filmed for nearly three years, Waste Land follows famed artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho, situated on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eccentric band of catadores, otherwise known as garbage pickers. The catadores are a definitive marginalized populace; jobless in any conventional sense, they turn to picking profitable recyclable materials from the junk discarded by those in Brazil luckier than themselves. Depicted in the documentary is a culture unlike any other that I have ever seen. The people within this isolated culture live in the most horrifying conditions imaginable. They are isolated from society along with the essence of life itself; their homes and lives revolve around a place filled with garbage, trash, and discarded and unwanted items. Therefore, it is impossible to fathom how the people that dwell here don't feel as …show more content…

He was able to remove the individuals who lived in the landfill out of their daily environments, which for them I feel was much needed. He helped the individuals to be able to escape their own realities, even if it was only for a few hours in the art studio. The artist also helped to give purpose and meaning to the individuals through letting them work and be closely involved with him on the art projects. Not that the individuals didn't already have purpose or meaning, but the artist was able to give them an even greater sense of each. Speaking of art' the fact that the artist wants to "paint" the catadores with the trash they spend their days dealing with and he chooses to incorporate several of the catadores and their stories into his art, shows what an impact these people had on him. At last, dynamic, complex, and substantially human representations rise, uncovering both nobility and hopelessness as the catadores start to reconsider their

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Film Response To Waste Land And Emmanuel's Gift

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Waste Land” and “Emmanuel’s Gift”, After watching these films, I have been thinking about the happiness to be found by work that is honest and valuable. I also thought about how hard some people are prepared to work, and how inspiring it is to see the individuals in these films find ideas to demonstrate the power of art and media to bring curiosity and cultural awareness in the poorest, most underprivileged people. “Waste Land” follows an artist Vik Muniz as he works on his art project in Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs catadors or garbage pickers as they pick recyclable materials from the garbage. And upon meeting the characters at the landfill, Vik decides to turn the project into collaboration with the catadors. In the end, this collaboration reveals both dignity and despair in the lives of the catadors. “Emmanuel’s Gift”, is about Emmanuel Ofosu, a man born in Ghana with a deformed right leg, he bikes around the country to help raise awareness and build relationships in a culture that ridicules those with disabilities.

    Read More

  • Vik Muniz Optimism In Wasteland

    1301 Words  | 3 Pages

    It seems as though it’s a natural reaction when people, seeing other people in need of something, help those around them. That help may pertain to the people in the helper’s community, or the helper may be doing good deeds in another part of the world. In instances where the helper is not part of a relief organization, such as the Red Cross, their help can either be viewed as an intrusion or as being beneficial. In the film Wasteland, directed by Lucy Walker, Vik Muniz goes into Jardim Gramacho with the sole intention of photographing the catadores and using the images as his muse, but by the end of the film, it is easy to see that Muniz’s presence changed the catadores in ways no one could have imagined.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Waste Land By Vik Muuniz

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout one’s life, he or she will encounter an opportunity that will likely impact his or her perspective on a given situation. In Waste Land, Vik Muniz embraced the opportunity to travel to Jardim Gramacho in Brazil in hopes of making a difference with the pickers by incorporating the pickers as assistants for the art projects. While at the landfill in Rio de Janeiro, he experiences the life of the pickers which helps him to create the art that will transform the lives of the workers; these experiences allow Muniz to develop as a person (Walker). Vik Muniz’s perspective regarding the landfill and the pickers evolved from expressing pity to embracing the pickers as a group of friends.

    Read More

  • On Dumpster Diving Summary

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author, Lars Eighner explains in his informative narrative, “On Dumpster Diving” the lifestyle of living out of a dumpster. Eighner describes the necessary steps to effectively scavenge through dumpsters based on his own anecdotes as he began dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. The lessons he learned from being a dumpster diver was in being complacent to only grab what he needs and not what he wants, because in the end all those things will go to waste. Eighner shares his ideas mainly towards two direct audiences. One of them is directed to people who are dumpster divers themselves, and the other, to individuals who are unaware of how much trash we throw away and waste. However, the author does more than direct how much trash

    Read More

  • T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – Can We Learn From the Past ?

    1758 Words  | 4 Pages

    These memories become his "key" to awken the rest of us who are still pretending. The reader is left with two choices at the end of the poem. S/he can either forget about the poem, and go back to living in a waste land, or s/he can stop repressing pain and feeling and leave the waste land. Eliot ends the poem with a man (maybe himself?) sitting on a shore, "[f]ishing, with the arid plain behind me" and asking, "Shall I at least set my lands in order?" (425-36) The man here, by facing his pain, has left the waste land, and is able to move ahead.

    Read More

  • The Life and Writings of Tim Burton

    2401 Words  | 5 Pages

    .... He uses his work as a form of therapy and puts his heart and soul into anything he touches. The pain from being unaccepted by his peers and family is put into his work. His nightmares from the past come out on paper. Without the judgment and pain thrown at him, he could have never been as great as he is today. Every aspect of his work has been affected by his life, whether it be relationships, being pushed down, or feeling alone. He has rose from the ashes of his past, taken all of the pain and turned it into something truly beautiful.

    Read More

  • The Lost Generation

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    Eliot, T. S., and Christopher Ricks. The Waste Land. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1997. Print.

    Read More

  • Environmental Racism: Discrimination, Causes And Consequences Of Environmental Racis

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reason of lack of opposition is due to the fact that these facilities can bring potential benefits to communities in jobs and revenues (Kevin 1997). In some cases, not only has there been a lack of local opposition to waste facilities sitting, but community leaders have actively sought out or welcomed such sittings (Kevin 1997). For example, the Campo Band of Mission Indians supported the construction of a solid waste landfill on reservation land in San Diego County, California (Austin 1991). The landfill brought great economic benefits to the Campo Band. Tribal sources estimated that “the landfill directly created at least fifty- five permanent jobs for at least thirty-five members of the Campo Band, almost eliminating tribal unemployment” (Austin 1991). This factor also explains why poor minority communities may be living near waste facilities at a disproportionate

    Read More

  • Picasso: Artistic Genius and Personal Struggles

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pablo Picasso had many hardships. All his life, he was a self-centered man who made fun of other people. The countless wives and mistresses he left him because they were unhappy. His dedication to art was too much for the people who had loved him. During his lifetime many people had passed away. Two of his good friends, mother, wife, and sister had all died. But many of those tragic events allowed him to create some of the most astounding artworks in history. Through the misfortunes in Picasso’s life, he was able to rise above and become one of the most significant artists of the 20th

    Read More

  • T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land - The Most Influential Work in Modern Literature

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    T.S. Eliot’s "The Waste Land" is considered by many to be the most influential work in modern literature. First published in 1922, it captures the feelings and sentiments of modern culture after World War I. Line thirty of "The Waste Land," "I will show you fear in a handful of dust," is often viewed as a symbol of mankind’s fear of death and resulting love of life. Eliot’s masterpiece—with its revolutionary ideas—inspired writers of his era, and it continues to affect writers even today.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Elizabeth Royte's Garbage Land

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, the material in Garbage Land connects to my research problem in that, it explains how the garbage collected from households is handled. Even though there are no aseptic techniques involved by the people handling this trash, it is clear that most of the waste obtained is recycled for re-use. Accordissng to Royte, 28% of the remainder is buried, 17% incinerated, and 1% is “surface disposed” without processing (Royte,

    Read More

  • Impact On Landfills

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tufano, L. (2015, August 12). Landfills: The good, the bad, and the trashy. Retrieved November

    Read More

  • The Power of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    with the Jamesian note, "I read, much of the night, and go south in the

    Read More

  • Waste Land Essay: Ceremonies and Rituals

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ceremonies are prevalent throughout T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land. Eliot relies on literary contrasts to illustrate the specific values of meaningful, effectual rituals of primitive society in contrast to the meaningless, broken, sham rituals of the modern day.  These contrasts serve to show how ceremonies can become broken when they are missing vital components, or they are overloaded with too many.  Even the way language is used in the poem furthers the point of ceremonies, both broken and not. In section V of The Waste Land, Eliot writes,

    Read More

  • T.S. Eliot’s Powerful Use of Fragmentation in The Waste Land

    2713 Words  | 6 Pages

    T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is an elaborate and mysterious montage of lines from other works, fleeting observations, conversations, scenery, and even languages. Though this approach seems to render the poem needlessly oblique, this style allows the poem to achieve multi-layered significance impossible in a more straightforward poetic style. Eliot’s use of fragmentation in The Waste Land operates on three levels: first, to parallel the broken society and relationships the poem portrays; second, to deconstruct the reader’s familiar context, creating an individualized sense of disconnection; and third, to challenge the reader to seek meaning in mere fragments, in this enigmatic poem as well as in a fractious world.

    Read More

More about Summary Of The Waste Land By Vik Muniz

Open Document