In Phnom Penh there is a bar known as the Meta House. It’s a good place to get some imported beers, as well as some decent German food. It’s also a German/Cambodian cultural center that runs film nights almost every day, and it’s free to attend. We went to see screening of a 2010 documentary called Waste Land.

It’s a movie that will change your view of the world. It is a documentary following the artist Vik Muniz and his project to create art based around the pickers in the Jardim Gramacho garbage dump, and to give something back to the community where he was born. His project was to create art with the help of the pickers, based around portraits he took of them while they were working. He would then auction off the art and donate the money made to ACAMJG, an organisation founded to improve the lives of the pickers at the landfill.

Throughout the movie we are pulled into the world of Brazil’s poorest, just as the artist himself is. They work for very little money, in a literal pile of trash, and are always at risk of injury, muggings, and the troubles that come with poverty. Though the film allows their positive attitudes to shine through, something Muniz picks up on himself as he engages in his project.

When we watched this film, I thought about the fact that on our way to the Killing Fields we could not only see, but also smell the landfill nearby. I swear I could still smell it when we arrived at the museum, but that may have been my mind messing with me. As I watched the lives of those who worked the site in Brazil, I wondered if it would be the same working on the landfill here in Phnom Penh.

The film then shows how Muniz’s project inspires and changes the lives of the people that get involved. The artworks sell for a considerable sum, money that is donated back to the community, but it is more than that. They see what they could have, and are motivated to change their own lives for the better.

It reminded me of how giving people a space and time to just explore and create can change a lot about a person. It’s not the same level, but working on Dragon Burn I would see changes in people like this all the time. It’s a testament to how art, interactive art, and cooperative art can change people’s lives.

Watching this film I saw how difficult the lives of others can be, but also how change can be exacted. Muniz’s art helped, but the film also highlights how the people were already working toward change, how they were already fighting for a better life. All the art did was give them pride in who they are and what they do.

When Tião Santos, now leader of the ACAMJG, appears on a local Brazilian TV station he makes a point to correct the host: they aren’t “waste pickers”, they are Recyclable Material Pickers. The things they pick aren’t “waste”. It’s useful material.

Something they should be proud of.