Waste management has always been an issue until now. As the article states, the society generates so much waste, yet care so little about it. A plastic bottle that is used for two minutes can last for hundreds of years in the landfills. In addition, much of the waste end up in the ocean, or the oceanic gyre. However, some of them are washed back into the beaches, killing animals and ruining the scenery.
What the documentary does is to show us visually, the contrast between pristine beaches and the garbage that mar the scenery. It also shows us the harms the garbage causes to the birds and other wild animals that mistakenly eat them for food, or becomes unwittingly entangled by them. On top of that, the crew has another mission; that is to turn the garbage they find into art, so as to raise awareness on the impact of garbage on wildlife.
As an artist, I often wonder about my relevance in this world, as so many things are happening. Just how important is an artist? However, what the expedition leader, Carl Safina, said struck me. He said that science tells people how the world really is and how things really work. However, it does not necessarily express how that feels to people. Science states the facts, but does not direct people to feel in certain ways. Then I realize that the job of an artist is to bring those facts together, and present them in such a way that they connect with the audience.
It feels enlightening to see those artists in the documentary, collecting, color sorting and utilize the garbage. I am also amused by the uniqueness of many of the garbage. Some of them have been personalized by the previous owners, and tell a lot of stories behind them.
There is a saying that states that you are what you eat. However, another way to see it is this: what you leave behind defines who you are.
Sources:
http://www.shft.com/reading/expedition-gyre-making-art-from-alaskan-marine-trash
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/21/filmmakers-document-the-weirdness-of-marine-garbage/
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