14- "Waste Land" and "Born Into Brothels"

by Elisabeth, Sabrina and Anna

Who ever said that poor living conditions and pop art could never work together? As we grow up, our parents teach us the importance of compassion and respect towards each other. Whether it’s regarding our family, friends or even strangers, we are expected to act this way all the time. We are brought up in a society in which we have to care for others and we all live as a whole, not individually. In situations that are more challenging because of impoverishment, societies are mostly taught how to work and to survive, that’s all. The aspect of respecting others is encouraged but not necessarily preached since it is unconditionally not a priority in their lives. But even in these unfortunate conditions there will always be the power of art. The majority of the time, art is an emotional provoker; it is meant to make people feel certain sentiments, which then displays the real beauty of art. The two documentaries that were presented display a completely different way of life in which underprivileged people are presented with the objective of creating art with what they have. In both films, we come to realize that art and the human condition can work together even in extreme cases.

The film Waste land is a documentary that lasts about one hundred minutes, has been filmed in Brazil and directed by LucyWalker, João Jardim and Karen Harley. It had been released on January 24, 2010. This documentary is about an artist named Vik Muniz that had a goal to change peoples’ lives by showing them their real value. Vik Muniz always used different object to create his work, he recycle most of the time but also, he redo some work who marked the generations. He went to the field for three years, in three years, he helped the workers to see the beauty of life. He decided to go to the world’s largest landfilled, meet the folks who worked there and he investigated the opinions they had about their work. When Vik understood that they didn’t enjoy being represented as garbage sorters, he decided to show them how garbage can be viewed in a different and better way.

Waste Land shows the audiences a parallel between the daily life of the workers at the Jardim Gramacho and the art that can be made from the garbage, which is totally discarded and has absolutely no value. This journey becomes really symbolic to the workers since in their minds, they have no hope and even though they acknowledge that they play a huge role for recycling, they are not valuing themselves, as they should be. The fact that the workers had the opportunity to use the waste and create something as beautiful with what they had made their thoughts completely change about undervalued objects. They came to realize that anything in life can develop a greater value and that it’s just a matter of perspective and projecting reality. Vik Muniz followed them through their hard times, and with his compassion, he helped them become more open to the camera. With this compassion, Vik was also able to make them feel like they were not only workers, but human too. When he asked them what they wanted to do and why they were here, the labourers told him that they wouldn't do it if they could and that if they had the money, they would do what they always wanted to do; follow their dreams just like Vik.

Since art has always reunited people around the world, Vik came with this idea to reunite the workers and the world to make everyone see this unique experience. His objective was to make the outsiders develop a value for art through the garbage and make the workers develop a value for garbage through art. As we saw in class, the art and the human nature is very close; we all have creativity inside us, but most of the time we don't express ourselves with art and many of us don't use it at our advantage. In the movie, when we saw Vik Muniz directing the workers to create one of the pieces of art, one of the girls realized that she could do it everyday, she even asked Vik to follow him. At this time, we saw her realizing that she actually had talent and creativity. Unlike the majority of men and women, Vik uses his creativity to comfort a group of workers from the Jardim Gramacho, by making the garbage beneficial to recreate different pieces of art in his own style and to have an enormous impact in this community. With imagination, art can help citizens be closer to each other and Vik sends this message through the different pictures he shares and therefore, strangers can feel closer to the workers. It shapes a connection between the people who see the images and the workers even though they may have never met.

This documentary also indicates that anything can develop as useful when both cooperation and respect, which are two important values for the human race, are adjoined together. Without cooperation, there's no loyalty between anyone and without it, there's not true respect between individuals because cooperation and respect work together. As we go in our lives, we need to respect the people around us if we want to work together as a whole to achieve something great. As Muniz learned in greater depth about whom they were internally and not only who they were on the landfill, we see his heart becoming progressively more fascinated about these people. At the beginning he had a certain expectation from them, but as he got to know them on a completely different level, he became more concerned about making them feel esteemed by producing his artwork. From this film we can actually learn that dignity, hope, faith, respect for ourselves, and cooperation are very essential for everyone’s happiness. Even if the image viewers are not part of the workers, they still feel disturbed by this problem since they become a witness of the reality over there. It is very easy to relate to and like Billy Joel said: "When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created." This is what we call real beauty of art and humanity.

To learn more about the film and see the art, click here: http://www.wastelandmovie.com

​The film Born Into Brothels is an American documentary that was filmed in Sonagachi directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman. This documentary is about a woman named Zana who decided to give photograph classes in a deprived region. She gave the children an opportunity to share their living conditions and exhibit them for to the world to see. The lesson developed a sense of independence in the children since Zana gave them their own camera and they would go on their own to take pictures of their surroundings. When they would have a numerous amount of photographs, after a certain period of time they would all combine the pictures together and compare them to then choose which ones had the most significance to their lives.

As Zana was showing them how to take good pictures, she started to develop a connection with the kids and became very concerned for them. Since they lived in poor conditions, the viewers can see what are the true colours of the people behind the misfortune. They go through violence everyday, fear, being neglected, having no money, rejection and many more. Zana took the responsibility to fill in documents and organize files to give them an opportunity to go to school. In their territory, schools do not accept any kids whose parents are criminals meaning prostitutes, drug dealers, etc. But living in the Red Light District is not the best place ever because there is not a great selection of choice for work so they all go on the criminal side. She also had them tested for HIV because schools do not accept anyone that are positive and she took a lot of her time to give them that opportunity. In the end, unfortunately only one of the kids remained in the school and is continuing his education. The other kids either dropped out, ran away or their relatives (parents, grandparents) made them come back to the district and leave school.

Even though the majority of them blew their opportunity away, they still have the chance to take pictures and share their passion. Zana taught the Red Light District children that what really matters isn’t what you have, it’s creating something great out of what you have. With photographs they can learn more about where they live since they have to travel around to take as many divers pictures as they can. Plus, it also brings joy in their days because they developed a huge passion for photography. Today they are probably still sharing this passion that makes them wake up in the morning and feel determined that maybe one day they’ll have the future they want. Zana pushed them to focus their energy on photography, which prevents them from turning into criminals just like their parents and leads them to a improved future.

To learn more about the film and see some pictures the children took, click here: http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/bornintobrothels/

Both Waste Land and Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids teach us similar lessons in life as well as teaching us certain things about ourselves. From the perspective of the visitors of the places seen in the film, Vik Muniz (for Waste Land) and Zana Briski (for Born Into Brothels), we learn a lot about our human nature. The first aspect is that we are all prone to think we know about different people and places based on their reputation or from what we’ve heard. In both films the artist was surprised to find that the places they visited differed from their preconceived ideas of them. We also see an attachment grown between the artists and the people they were reached. This shows us that no matter how different people are from each other, they have a nature to see past the exterior and connect on a deeper level. 

Through the people living in the devastating places the films are based upon, we learned that the saying “you can do anything if you put your mind to it” is one hundred percent true. Though these people thought they were trapped in the life they were living and that a better life was a dream away, with just a bit of motivation, encouragement and worth installed, we saw them go on to do things they never thought was possible and all this because of art. Whether it be getting a better job and having enough money to provide for their family (in Waste Land) or escaping their almost inevitable future of working in a brothel to go on and receive a higher education (in Born Into Brothels),they all had the occasion to reach their own goals.

This motivation, encouragement and worth installed in them was done so by the filmmakers, Vik Muniz and Zana Briski, who’s missions were to give the people they were visiting a new perspective of life through art and showing them that they weren’t bound to the life they were living. While both filmmakers had the same intentions, I believe one of them communicated those ideas to the viewers in a much-enhanced way, which was Zana Briski. Though Vik Muniz made a huge impact on the people he was working with, he did so by working alongside them, which I think gave them more of a sense that they helped Muniz make something great. Zana Briski on the other hand, taught the children how to work a camera and then let them go off to photograph whatever they desired to photograph. This gave them a sense of being able to do something great on their own because they were using their own power and creativity, not hers. But in the end, what really mattered wasn’t whether the people sensed an independent empowerment or an empowerment through being a part of a project, it’s the fact that the filmmakers presented their ideas and both empowered people dramatically.

So how do these films change our understanding of the world? I think the obvious answer would be that it helps us see the power that art has on people and that no matter who you are or where you come from, you have the power to do something amazing. But personally, these films have challenged another aspect of my understanding. Living in North America, some tend to fool themselves into thinking wisdom comes from our grandparents since they have lived a long life, or those individuals who have a Harvard law degree hanging on their wall. But these films completely changed my way of thinking, especially Born Into Brothels. I was completely in awe the whole time watching the film on the knowledge the children of the prostitutes had about their mothers’ work, the things that go on around them, the reasons why they’re living the way they do, etc. What really astounded me the most was how much they knew about each other and people in general; how they functioned in their condition. The kids in Born Into Brothels showed us that wisdom came from within and cannot be taught in a school or brought on through 80 years of living. It comes from knowing the things that are around us and learning from them.

​In life, you don’t need to be rich to be happy. All you need is something that drives you to accept your living condition and making the best out of it. Appreciating what you have is essential to contentment, not money. Inspiration always plays an incredible role in life and sometimes it’s needed in certain cases just like both documentaries, but once everything is set, nothing can stop those persons. Passion creates hope for everyone and when they all use their power collected, that’s when the majority becomes delighted.