14 - The power of Art

By Keven and Liam

Introduction

Throughout the striking images of those people living in such a poor conditions the impact on the viewer can be shocking. The Power of Art as a great impact all around the world as we see it in Waste Land and Born in the Brothels where both of the main characters let go of their own lives to be able to better understand the living situation in Jardim Gramacho situated in Rio de Janeiro and in the brothel of Calcutta in India.

Part-1

Waste Land

--> The documentary Waste Land winner of 42 awards was filmed in Rio, directed by Lucy Walker and released in 2011, goes beyond looking and understanding how the pickers earn their living by gathering recyclable matters; it is also about Vik Muniz giving back. Ironically, he was very fortunate to have gotten shot because the person who shot him was a wealthy man. By being shot, he got the money to go study in the USA and become an artist. His goal: use what those pickers live off of to create art. Once completed, these pieces of art are then sold at auction. In the end, those pictures produced an amount of $250 000 U.S. This adventure was beneficial on both sides. The pickers were given the opportunity to leave the Gramacho’s  landfill and start a new beginning with the money gathered from their portraits. On the other side of the camera stood a wealthy man and one of the greatest artists alive; Vik Muniz, who was completely changed from experiencing 2 years of life with the catadores. At a first glimpse they all seem pretty happy on the outside; living an honest life and earning their money legally. Yet, as we enter their personal life as we follow them home we can se that on the inside most of them wished they could leave this place and have a better job. This is where this week’s course topic comes in; us and others. Sometimes we take action in order to help our surroundings yet it is upon us that the biggest impact occurs. After experiencing such a life-altering event, Vik Muniz now sees everything in a much simpler way. He now has everything: money, a house, a wealthy lifestyle and tons of superficial objects yet he says, “I’d rather want everything and have nothing than have everything and want nothing because at least when you want something your life has a meaning”. This is the second most powerful of two sentences that stayed embedded in my mind after watching this documentary, because everybody would like to get the new iPhone, or the latest summer clothes collection however once we will all be standing in the same position as Vik: owning all these meaningless object, what will we thrive for? Luckily for the pickers, Vik used his social position to raise awareness through the arts created with recyclable matter about Jardim Gramacho.
This cinéma vérité documentary has two rhetoric meanings, the first one being ethos, where right from the beginning the viewer is believing in the documentary due to the social position of Vik Muniz. The second one is pathos, as the film appeals to our emotions by showing piercing shots of people living with practically nothing. The power of art created by Vik Muniz’s creativity in this documentary has helped the workers by improving their lives and the ones of others, such as Tião. In expanding the ACAMJG, Zumbi finally opened a library with 15 computers and Magna is now working in a drugstore. Valter, this wise man, who did not even posses primary nor secondary education, is the one who said the most influential sentence that could be given to describe why so many people take part into picking up recyclable matters. In this man’s eyes we could see the passion and proudness he had in being a catadore and he said, “99 is not 100”. These people live with practically nothing yet through this short phrase this men shows he has lot more knowledge then many people from richer countries, Valter knows the importance of recycling because as he says that one can has a great important and if the catadores were not there, 200 tons of recyclable matters a day it would be buried with the garbage, pollute their rivers and clog their sewers. At the end of the documentary we see that Valter died shortly after meeting Vik, he his still missed and remembered for his contributions to the landfill and to the pickers.

Part-2

Born into Brothels 

“Born into Brothels” documents the story of a group of young children living in the red light district of Sonagchi, Calcutta. Directed by Zana Brisku, the 2004 documentary shows how difficult it is for any scrap of innocence that the children who are filmed have to survive, and how hard hoping for a better future can be for them. They are invited to learn about photography by Brisku, and immediately fall in love with it. They run around the dilapidated buildings and dirty streets finding beauty in every nook and cranny. The movie is interspersed with the pictures the children have actually taken, which shows the viewer how talented some of them are, without even knowing it in some cases. There are two children that are followed more closely than the others: the young boy, Avajit, and the adorable girl, Kochi. They show not only the most promise over the course of the film, and retain their hope for a better future, but are very well spoken and strong. Brisku tries desperately to get all the children in her documentary into schools, for she knows what will happen to them if they don’t. The boys will grow up to be just like their fathers, addicted to hash like Avajit’s, and the girls will be forced into prostitution and become callous and lose all innocence, just like their mothers. Brisku was a photographer who originally went to the red light district of Calcutta to photograph the prostitutes there, but when she saw the children living there, she became enthralled by them. The two themes of this week were “the Power of Art” and “Us and Them.” The power of art is clearly visible in this documentary, as it shows a group of otherwise hopeless children that anything is possible, and that beauty can be found in anything. Once given their cameras, these young ones realize, slowly at first, but at an exponential rate, that art can be found in anything. This realization is the fuel for their second epiphany: even they, poor daughters and sons of prostitutes, can do beautiful things. In terms of “us and them,” the lives of these children, who are insulted by their parents and don’t strive for anything other than the life in front of them, show us opportunistic our lives are, and how well off we are, just by being able to attend school.

http://www.lightstalkers.org/images/show/824481

Part-3

Our Opinion

 

Both “Waste Land” and “Born into Brothels” carry a strong message: that art, and the beauty born from art, can be found anywhere.

http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/kidsgallery/

Both films transport the viewer to a corner of the world known for its filthiness, and how alien the lifestyles of its inhabitants are. There is a moment in both films where we realize that our initial assumptions, whether they took place upon hearing the title “Born into Brothels,” or hearing Vik’s explanation of the part of Rio he is going to, are totally wrong. In Zana Brisku’s documentary about the children living among the prostitutes of Sonagchi, we realize how beautiful the minds of these children are the moment they first talk to the camera. They are well spoken, bright-eyed and full of hope, and it evokes an emotion in the viewer: you want to protect these kids. In “Waste Land,” we realize how wrong we were to assume all the pickers are drug addicts and broken people when Vik first arrives at the landfill. Everybody is smiling, and they all take pride in their jobs. This moment, in both movies, makes us realize how well off we are, and even all the way over here in North America, we can learn from the example of these people. The pickers show us that happiness does not have to directly relate to money or material possessions, and the children in Calcutta show us that even in the dirtiest places, where hope seems impossible, a dream can grow and thrive. The goal of both these films is to change our perception of what is the “right” way of life. Personally, I don’t think I am HALF as happy as Tiao is shown to be in “Waste Land,” and the man picks up garbage for a living. The same goes for Kochi, the small, sharp toungued girl in “Born into Brothels.” Kochi makes me feel like I am completely spoiled and don’t deserve anything I have ever been given, because she has more fun with a disposable camera taking pictures of dirty building than I do with my iPhone. The message in both films is a positive one, and is conveyed artfully by letting the people in the movie speak for themselves, instead of trying to show us what we should be seeing. 

Conclusion 

In both documentaries are showing what the power of art is. Throughout true shocking reality of living in poor conditions the two protagonist are resigned to bring some help. Vik Muniz was changed from this experience, he now sees things in a simpler way. Meeting all these catadores and thinking that if it wasn't from being shot he might have been a this very same place picking up recyclable matters for 20 U.S. dollars a day. Brisku the main character of Born in to Brothels, has tried to save these children lives through art. By taking photo's the young children were given the power to capture the moment and but they were also given an opportunity to change their lives. Both documentaries were meant to expose two different situations yet, we see those as devastating but they don't, at least from what was shown form the screenings. We have to start acting like them, enjoying the little things that are given to us in order to enjoy the bigger ones.