The Discarded
Project Overview
From takepart.com
With the Summer Olympics underway in Rio de Janeiro, the global media has focused on athletes’ fears about the horrific pollution of Guanabara Bay, the arena for swimming, sailing, rowing, and windsurfing competitions. Filmmakers Annie Costner and Adrienne Hall wanted to tell a different story—one about the impact on Cariocas, as Rio’s residents are called, of the untold tons of untreated sewage and garbage that pour into the bay, litter its shores, and clog its tributaries.
Their 18-minute documentary, The Discarded, juxtaposes ethereal drone-captured images of the city’s spectacular natural setting with images of trash-strewn streets, creeks, and favelas (hillside slums where a quarter of Rio’s population lives). Narrated by Cariocas—from a boy who sails the garbage-choked Guanabara to an elderly man who recycles detritus into art—in the film ordinary citizens, scientists, and policy makers speak about the seemingly insurmountable challenges of Rio’s pollution crisis and reasons for hope.
We tried to get very intimate with those shots of garbage. They’re oddly beautiful. These objects have a life of their own that go beyond the descriptor of trash. We tend to think that when we throw something away, it goes away. But there is no “away.”
