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Public showings of the film "Waste Land" will be offered through collaboration between the Purdue University North Central Odyssey 2011 - 2012 Arts and Cultural Events Series and the Michigan City Public Library. The showings are free and open to the public. Free popcorn will be available at PNC.
The film will be shown on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Michigan City Public Library, 100 E. Fourth St., and on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. at PNC in the Library-Student-Faculty Building Assembly Hall, Room 02, on the building's lower level. The film is not rated. It is in Portuguese and English with subtitles.
"Waste Land" is a documentary directed by Lucy Walker that tells the story of a handful of Brazilian garbage pickers and how photographer Vik Muniz changed their lives.
The garbage pickers - called catadores - "work" at Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill. The garbage pickers are at the landfill to scavenge what they can from the truckloads of trash that are delivered daily. They are shown swarming over heaps of waste to pull out what they can sell to recyclers. Each has a specialty, such as plastic bottles or scrap. One cartadore searches for books to help create a library and yet another finds unspoiled meat so that she can cook meals for herself and her fellow pickers.
Most workers live at Jardim Gramacho, earning about $20 to $25 a day. One picker has organized an association of pickers that has established a recycling center, medical clinic, daycare and skills-training centers for the catadores.
Photographer Muniz hopes to transform their lives through his artistic rendering of his photographs of the catadores. The film includes a "where are they now" segment that gives the audience a glimpse of how their lives have - and have not - changed.
The Odyssey Arts and Cultural Events Series continues throughout the year. A complete schedule can be found at www.pnc.edu/odyssey. For information about this film or the Odyssey series, contact Judy Jacobi, PNC assistant vice chancellor of Marketing and Campus Relations, at 219.785.5200 ext. 5593. Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Jacobi.