Waste Land

Waste Land (Portuguese: Lixo Extraordinário, lit. 'Extraordinary Garbage') is a 2010 British-Brazilian documentary film directed by Lucy Walker, co-directed by João Jardim and Karen Harley, and produced by Angus Aynsley and Hank Levine. The music for the film was created by Moby, who is a friend and frequent collaborator of Walker. The film follows artist Vik Muniz as he travels to the world's largest landfill in Jardim Gramacho, just outside Rio de Janeiro, to collaborate with a lively group of "catadores" (workers who salvage recyclable materials from the garbage) to make contemporary art using some of the materials they have "picked". Muniz donated the proceeds from the sale of his pictures of the artworks to the ACAMJG (Associação dos Catadores do Aterro Metropolitano de Jardim Gramacho, or Association of Pickers of the Metropolitan Landfill of Jardim Gramacho), which is a co-operative founded and led by Sebastião "Tião" Carlos Dos Santos, one of the catadores involved in the art project; the prize money from the awards won by the film was also donated to the organization. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2010. It was distributed by Arthouse Films in the US, Entertainment One in Canada, Hopscotch Films in Australia and New Zealand, and Midas Filmes in Portugal. The film won over 50 film awards, including the International Documentary Association's Best Documentary Award (which was handed to director Lucy Walker inside a garbage bag), and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards.