Waste Land Vik Munniz Summary

In the documentary film, Waste Land Vik Muniz travels back to his home country and ultimately gives back to the community in the only way he knows how art. Muniz chose a landfill in Jardim Gramacho and collaborated with some local Pickers to create art with the materials they use every day at work. At first, people did not understand his vision and became skeptical, but when Muniz revealed his finished work everyone who participated was surprised. In Muniz art, the choice of material, social interaction and the ability to change one's life is why his art has broken barriers.
To Begin, the material that was used to create Muniz's portraits was Recyclable material that was found in the landfill. To Illustrate, the women would only collect plastic and aluminum because they were lightweight and easier to carry, so this was the materials used to create their portraits. A single plastic bottle by itself is just a bottle, but many plastic bottles can produce an outline of a person's face. Many of the pickers were confused with the concept of making a portrait and only focused on the discarded material, not the overall product. Muniz used an excessive amount of recyclable material to create the portraits of each individual. This is why …show more content…
Muniz social interactions with the pickers gave him a further understanding of their life. Muniz noticed they were happy people and had pride in their job. So, out of the three thousand pickers, Muniz choose five individuals who were open to sharing their stories with him. Many of the pickers were just happy someone took the time out to even recognize them as a person instead of being judged. Muniz involvement did, in fact, help the pickers, even though they all worked together in making the portraits. Once they saw the finished product they all realized that their perception of art and an artist was