The Waste Land

With Walker and cinematographer Dudu Miranda, Muniz has a hawk's eye for the weird beauty of bulldozed hillocks of trash and the catador faces that he chose to star in photographic portraits.

Muniz is a gifted, modest and altogether delightful man, and his project is both aesthetically fascinating and philosophically stimulating.

A well-made and often uplifting film that refuses to get angry yet still manages to point out that things aren't as they should be for a great many.

[Director Lucy] Walker's documentary is an eye-opening trip to a part of the world where garbage serves as liquid currency for people who salvage dignity from degradation with intelligence and grace.