Jan. 27
8:00 p.m.
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005

Hosted by: Aurora Picture Show & Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s Teen Council

Catch a special screening of this Oscar-nominated documentary!

Vik Muniz is a world famous Brazilian artist currently living in NYC. Several years ago, he began traveling back to his home country to photograph and make art with a unique group of survivalists, the “catadores,” who scavenge through the mounds of the world’s largest garbage dump, which exists just outside Rio de Janeiro.

Filmmaker Lucy Walker documented Muniz’s art project over a period of three years for the film Waste Land. She captured Muniz earning the trust of the catadores, whom he at first photographed, then transformed those photos into enormous “paintings” made entirely out of the garbage dug out of the mound.

Finally, Muniz would take photographs of the paintings and sell them for enormous sums at auction that he then gave back to the catadores.

Waste Land has screened at festivals all over the world in 2010, including Sundance, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival and more. Plus, it received rave reviews in publications such as the Hollywood Reporter, the Village Voice and the New York Times.

More on this film at its official website.

The film will also be screening on Jan. 29 & 30 at 1:00 p.m. and on Feb. 6 at 5:00 p.m.

Watch the Waste Land movie trailer: