WASTE LAND gets Oscar Nod

WASTE LAND, a documentary about a community art project in Brazil, is nominated in the Best Documentary category. The film follows contemporary artist Vik Muniz as he travels to the world's largest dump, which is outside of Rio de Janeiro. At the dump there is an eclectic gang of garbage pickers, "catadores", who make a living by finding and selling recyclable trash. Muniz works with the catadores to create large-scale collage portraits in which trash is dignified as a material and compared to the venerable tradition of oil painting.

Sebatiao as Marat-Pictures of Garbage 
This painting is based on the painting The Death of Marat (1793) by Jacques-Louis David, which depicts French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat dying in a bathtub after being stabbed by a Royalist. 

Muniz's work is a social and political commentary of several issues. One, it is a reaction against consumption and waste. The film portrays the ridiculous size of the dump and the at-times despair of the catadores' daily life. Two, it responds to social class differences since the catadores are poor and disenfranchised. Three, it comments on the traditional art canon in which Western oil painting are valued. Muniz bases some of the portraits on renowned paintings that have a social political context, like David's The Death of Marat.

Vik Muniz is most known for treating non-art materials as paint in his 2D collages, like does with trash in this project . In the past, he has also worked with sugar, wire, cotton, chocolate syrup, and peanut butter and jelly. For more info on his creative process, check out his TED talk.

The pseudo-documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop by British street artist Banksy is also nominated for Best Documentary. Wonder who will win?