The Power Of Art
By: Chantal, and Debora
As stated in the Oxford
dictionary, art is “The expression or
application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form
such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for
their beauty or emotional power:” It is the artists interpretation of
the world around them. This is shown in the movies “Wasteland” (L. Walker, K.
Harley, J. Jardim, 2012, Brazil, 99 min.) and the movie “Born Into Brothels” (Zana
Briski, Ross Kauffman,2004, India, 85 min.) The use of art is used to make a
difference in the world around us by trying to show us that the artist’s
perspective is right.
Waste Lands Trailer
The documentary "Waste Lands" focuses on a
large group of people who are caradores (or pickers.) A caradore is a person
who picks out recyclable elements from mixed waste wherever it may be
temporarily accessible or disposed of. These people are typically found
within Third world countries and they normally live in low-income
neighborhoods, the slums or squatter settlements. In this film, they pick the
garbage from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill. Vik Muniz (an
artist) begins by showing the landfill and uses people who work there to show
not only what they do, but the lives they live outside the recyclable
materials. This was an important aspect in the film as it shows us that they
are not living easy lives and the littlest things make a difference to them. We
learnt about 7 main people; Tiaõ, Zumbi, Suelem, Isis, Irma, Valter and Magna.
Each person led different lives and started within the wasteland for different
reasons.
We first learnt about Tiaõ, who was inspired by texts that
Zumbi brought his managed to convince people around him to start a company and
is now the president of ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim
Gramacho). Many people talk about how much of a wonderful leader he is. You can
see it first hand by the things he says and by the way he acts. He asks for
recognition to help get support for his company this shows that he is strong in
his beliefs. He ended up on a talk show to talk about his experiences with Vik
and his company. Many people believe that he could be the next president.
Zumbi has been working in the landfill since he was 9
years old due to his parents dying. However, he is very intellectual. When he
sees a book, he does not add it to be recycled but he keeps it so that he can
read it and use it later on. He started a program where he lent library books
in his shack for people to borrow and give back later on. The same concept as a
library. He has now opened up his own library with 7000 books, computers and a
learning center.
Suelem is 18 who started working at the landfill when she
was 7. She has 2 kids and believes that she can eat anything. It is good as
long as it doesn't kill her. She is proud to be a picker. She says it is a more
respectful job than if she were to choose to prostitute herself. When the
documentary finished, she found a man who is supporting her and her family and
is staying at home with her children (her dream job.)
Isis was in a relationship with a married man and was
heartbroken at the beginning of the film because he chose her over him. She got
a tattoo on her leg in memory of him. She had 2 children, one son and one
daughter. Her son died and her daughter was taken away by her husband and they
abandoned her. She hates picking garbage and after she finished working with
Vik, she says she is never going to go back.
Irma is the chef of the landfill. She finds food that is
still good and cooks meals for the workers. After working with Vik, she opened
up her own restaurant however; she left it to go back serving the workers. She
claims she likes the sense of family.
Valter is the vice president of the company ACAMJG. He is
an old man who is well known for his inspirational saying "99 is not
100". He has not had an education however is still very intelligent. He
enjoyed his time explaining to people why it is so important to make a
difference and recycle. Unfortunately, he died before Vik got the chance to
make his picture.
Magna is the last character we looked at. She came to the
landfill after experiencing hard times with her husband. She once walked onto a
bus and called people out for making faces at her due to her smell. She is a
bit ashamed of working in the landfill. After working with Vik, she lives with
her 11 year old son and works at a pharmacy.
Vik took each person’s picture and made the models made
their portrait out of garbage. He then sold them and donated the money to the
company. This allowed each person to feel more important. They also had
epiphanies and changed their lives because of it.
This week, our class focused on the power of art. We
learnt that art often makes us feel alive and it also offers a way to show our
understanding of what is happening in the world around us. It is normally about
interpretation and does not contain a real truth. This documentary shows different
perspectives:
Close vs. far
First world vs. third world
Art and life
Rich vs. poor
Dignity
was also a large focus in the class. We saw in the film that the caradores;
even though they do not have the most respected and well-paying jobs, they are still
able to contain their dignity since they have more respect for themselves than
if they were to prostitute themselves or steal from other people. They are
doing something that no one else wants to do however; it is an honest,
respectful and cooperative job.
One of the things that stood out to us most is how art can change someone's point of view. I have heard many people who said they thought garbage pickers were just people who ended up on drugs and were not able to find good jobs. However as we were shown in the movie, this is not always the case. The people we were shown were hard working people who unfortunately had problems that were out of their control. Mostly due to their parents death. They were just unlucky.
One of the things that stood out to us most is how art can change someone's point of view. I have heard many people who said they thought garbage pickers were just people who ended up on drugs and were not able to find good jobs. However as we were shown in the movie, this is not always the case. The people we were shown were hard working people who unfortunately had problems that were out of their control. Mostly due to their parents death. They were just unlucky.
Born Into Brothels Trailer
The documentary “Born into Brothels” is by Zana Briski
and Ross Kauffman. It is a 2004 American documentary film which is about an
hour and twenty three minutes. The idea of this documentary came about when
Zana Briski a documentary photographer went to Calcutta to photograph
prostitutes. During her visit, she befriended the children of the prostitutes.
The children were very curious about what she was doing so she decided to teach
them about photography and she gave each child a camera. The children took
pictures that show their perspectives of their surroundings. Briski showed most
of their works in the film. Briski and Kauffman recorded the classes that they
had with the children as well as their daily life in the red light district.
Briski chose eight children to help get education and they were: Avijit, Manik,
Puja, Shanti, Gour, Tapasi, Suchitra and Kochi. Each child had different
personality. The first issue that came up was about Suchitra. Suchitra lost her
mother so she lived with her aunt who wants to send her to Bombay to work “in
the line,” (prostitution) because all the girls in her family are in the line.
The second issue was about Avijit. Avijit is the most talented among the
children. He love drawing; he states: “I like to draw pictures to express
what’s on my mind.” He is a great child but he was born in an unfortunate city.
His father is addicted to smoking and his mother lives in the village where no
one actually cares about her. During the film, we found out that his mother was
burned in a fire. Afterward Briski tried to get the children into good school
but no school would take them because of their background. She was even asked
to do HIV test for all the children. Luckily for them the test came out
negative. Briski wanted all of them to get into boarding school so that they
will be out of the red light district. She was able to get Kochi, Puja and
Shanti into a boarding school called Sabera Foundation. Briski had to sell some
of the work of the children to help them with their education and Avijit got
the chance to go to Amsterdam to represent all the other children. When he
returned, he chose to enter the Future Hope School. Suchitra’s aunt refused to
let her leave the brothel, Manik’s father would not let him go to school, Gour
still lived at home and hopes to go to university, Puja’s mother withdrew her
from the Sabera school because her clients offered her a lot of money for Puja,
Shanti left Sabera on her own accord, Kochi chose to stay at Sabera and Tapasi
ran away from home and went to the Sanlaap school for girls.
This film is special because it is about the future and the life of
prostitutes’ children and also it is very rare. It is special also because it
shows how some children are unfortunate that even them getting education is a
very big problem for them because of their background. We got to see and tried
to understand the perspectives of the children barely in their teens.
In Waste Land,
we learned that we should reduce our usage of things because if we minimize the
things that we use there will not be a lot of garbage and there might not even
be a landfill. We learned how art can change people’s life and how it brought
happiness to the group that Vik Muniz worked with. This film made us talk
things that we don’t normally talk about. For instance, we started talking
about where our garbage goes and who takes care of them. We learned about how
the people that worked at the landfill had each other’s back as in Born into
Brothels. The children that Zana Briski worked with and taught had each other’s
back. For instance, in Waste Land the people donated blood when Zumbi got hurt
because they lived like one family. In Born into Brothels, Gour looks out for
Puja, he even wishes he could take her away from the brothel. In both films we
learned that we should stand up for each other and also that we are very
fortunate to be where we are right now.
The filmmakers had different types of strategies but they also had one common
strategies and that is using the insiders’ point of view. Vik went to Jardim
Gramache purposely to make a documentary film about the people and the place
but Zana went just to take photograph of the prostitutes so her documentary
came along when she befriended their children. Vik did not give the camera to
the people but Zana on the other hand gave out cameras and that brought out
more about what the children see.
Waste Land challenges us to reduce the usage of things. We got to see and learn
about the life if those that work in the landfill. We also see the power of
art. In Born into Brothels, we really see that we are very privileged to be
born in Canada and not at a place like the brothel. It challenges us not to
take things like education for granted because there are a lot of people out
there that wishes to have a quarter of what we have.
In our class discussion, we learnt a lot about how art can be a great impact in the life of people. Art brings out what we think and how we sometimes see things. We learnt that we all have creative potential in us so we just have to tap into it. In Born into Brothels, we see how art in a form of photograph brought out the imaginations and the dreams of the children that Zana Briski worked with. Art opened their eyes to really capture their environment, education etc… We also learnt in class that art is about our experiences and in Born into Brothels we see that most of the photographs taken by the children relate to their daily life experience in the red light district. Some of the pictures of one of Zana’s student, Avijit, showed the environment that he was in.
In our class discussion, we learnt a lot about how art can be a great impact in the life of people. Art brings out what we think and how we sometimes see things. We learnt that we all have creative potential in us so we just have to tap into it. In Born into Brothels, we see how art in a form of photograph brought out the imaginations and the dreams of the children that Zana Briski worked with. Art opened their eyes to really capture their environment, education etc… We also learnt in class that art is about our experiences and in Born into Brothels we see that most of the photographs taken by the children relate to their daily life experience in the red light district. Some of the pictures of one of Zana’s student, Avijit, showed the environment that he was in.
Waste Land speaks to us more because Deb comes from a place where you find
garbage all around the city. Some of the environments are polluted because of
that and they do not really do anything about it because they are used to it.
It speaks to Chantal more because she has seen first hand during mission trips
people from Haiti who had potential and were on their way to get a job then
have their opportunities ruined when the tsunami occurred. When it comes
to Born into Brothels, we would say that these children were born in an
unfortunate place. It is very sad to see children that have dreams and great
ambitions not get the opportunity to go to school or anything of the sort
because of the places that they live and their parents occupations and life
choices.
In conclusion, both documentaries
have explained how art can make huge differences in the artists and
the audiences lives. It allows the audience and the artists to
explain how they see the world. These documentaries have shown us that through
art, we are able to change our worlds.
