Over 100 locals came out to Kicking Horse Culture’s FILM Kicks screening of “Nowhere Boy”— and during quite the snowstorm, too. The film focused on John Lennon’s troubled childhood and the first few years of the legendary band’s life.
The audience left the theatre with a deeper understanding of how Lennon’s family life shaped his music and maybe even a secret desire to stop at the 7-11 and buy a pack of cigarettes (it was one of those movies that made smoking look incredibly sexy) on the way home — I know I did.
Next in line for the FILM Kicks series is a documentary about creating art in the world’s largest garbage dump. Filmed over nearly three years, “WASTE LAND” follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives.
“The moment when one thing turns into another is the most beautiful moment. A combination of sounds turns into music. And that applies to everything,” says Muniz in the film.
The film is directed by Lucy Walker, a documentary filmmaker who is known for following memorable characters like those in WASTE LAND and subsequently giving the rest of the world access into these closed worlds. Walker earned her MFA at New York University where she moonlighted as a musician and DJ and met Moby, who contributed the music for ‘WASTE LAND”.
“For me this film, as with all of my work, is about getting to know people who you do not normally meet in your life,” Walker wrote in the film’s Director’s Statement. “And, if I’m doing my job, I aim to create an opportunity for the audience to feel they are getting under the skin, to emotionally connect with the people on the screen.
The Los Angeles Times wrote “That a beautiful film could be set in the world’s largest garbage dump sounds like an oxymoron, but acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker has pulled off precisely that feat in her profoundly moving “WASTE LAND”.
The Huffington Post wrote “With a stirring score by Moby, it’s a heart-warming tale of human dignity and innovation, and was a worthy winner of the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award.”
The film has won many awards, including the Audience Award and Best World Cinemia Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival.
Marie-Helene Bergeron, a FILM Kicks volunteer, says she is thrilled to be showing the last two movies of the year: WASTE LAND and March’s film, Incendies, which is currently in the running for the Oscars.
WASTE LAND will screen at 7:30 pm, Thursday, February 10th at the Golden Cinema. Tickets are $10 for Kicking Horse Culture members, $12 for non-members and $5 for students 6-18 years old.
