waste and graced :-)

Been watching some moving documentaries lately that I wanted to share. They are not directly related to my art but somehow will influence it and perhaps touch you as well.

Starting with “Wasteland”

Synopsis

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 inspiring 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. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

And continuing the journey of the possibilities of humans transformation with the shocking but amazingly graced “Wounded Healers”

Synopsis:

Wounded Healers: How Do You Forgive the Unforgivable? The documentary film, Wounded Healers, chronicles the extraordinary personal stories of five Rwandans and their post-genocide journey through the stages of extreme hurt, hate, and healing. The central characters of the film are faced with the dilemma of what to do when those who inflicted genocide on their families are released from prison and move back into their neighborhood. Tense face-to-face meetings between survivors and killers eventually lay the foundation for forgiveness and a new future. In the process, viewers come to understand that forgiveness, however improbable, is truly possible.

It is encouraging to see there is hope in places we would never expect…

And last but not least a film that I have seen quite a while ago, and it still leaves me with so much gratefulness. It is called, “Fierce Grace” with and about Ram Das.

“I was going fingers thru life before the stroke, and I kind of thought that was that, that was all it was. But the stroke, its like a whole new incarnation. There are qualities in me that never would have come out, never. I am at peace more now than I have ever been. The peace comes from my settling in to the moment. This moment is all right. NOW, this moment is all right.”