Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Nuestro Cine: Trash to treasure

Earlier today the nominees were announced for this year's Academy Awards. Mexican entry “Biutiful” was nominated for nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Spaniard Javier Bardem was nominated for Best Actor for his role in that movie.

While “Biutiful” hopes to become the second consecutive Latin American movie to win top foreign film honors (Argentina's "The Secret In Their Eyes" won last year), another film set in the region hopes to win its Oscar. Documentary film “Waste Land” examines how art can be born through ingenuity and imagination. The film focuses on an art project wherein the self-described “pickers of recyclable materials” at the the world’s largest garbage dump in Brazil create self-portraits by using garbage. Their artwork reveals details of the lives as unique people with unfulfilled aspirations but also deep emotions and personal pride.

“Waste Land” faces very stiff competition in the Best Documentary Feature category from “Exit through the Gift Shop” from street artist Banksy and from war documentary "Restrepo". Nonetheless, it has already won numerous awards on the film festival circuit and enjoys a 100% rating from critics according to the Rotten Tomatoes website.

We touched on “Waste Land” last August but it’s worth featuring again in light of today’s nomination. Here is the trailer for a documentary worthy of being named one of the best of the year and deserving of the Oscar:

Video Source - YouTube
Online Sources- CBS News, Rotten Tomatoes, The Latin Americanist, Official website for “Waste Land”

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