14 - The Power Of Art

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. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8345947/Waste-Land-review.html 

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.

            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. 

 Waste Land accepts contributions to help ACAMJG!