Landfill Harmonic (2015) User Reviews

Inspiring documentary

[subxerogravity · 9/10 · 30 September 2016]

I am a huge Megadeth fan and when I saw them in the synopsis of the film, I knew I had to go see it.

The doc starts out slow, explaining the origin of a man who came to a city in south America to figure out their waste problem. when this plan fell thorough he stayed to teach the children how to play music. The doc gets real interesting when this man realizes he that they're not enough interments to go around for these kids. Then he meets a man who has the skills to create the interments needed for these kids out of garbage. The kids become good enough to use the orchestra to see the world outside of their small area and attract the eye of Megadeth bassist, Dave Ellefson.

The documentary is amazing because it's on an amazing story about how a community coming together and using what they got to climb of the ladder. Such an inspiration.

Inspiring and amazing story

[runamokprods · 9/10 · 19 November 2016]

Lots of documentaries lay claim to being inspiring, but many fall into over-sentimentality or manufactured emotions. However, "Landfill Harmonic" is truly inspiring and uplifting, while always feeling unforced, it's emotions well-earned.

It's also one of those stories that would seem ridiculous and over the top if it weren't true: An ecological engineer comes to work in a poverty stricken Paraguayan town. Once there, he decides instead to follow his dream and become a music teacher. But the town's children – while eager to learn - can't possibly afford instruments. Enter a local genius named 'Cola' who somehow fashions wonderful, playable instruments completely from garbage found in the town's giant garbage landfill. Old oil drums become cellos, discarded forks become bridges on violins.

That story alone would be enough for a film. But the passion the teacher and students then put into learning to play these instruments with ever greater skill, and the reception they get as people discover their story builds and builds, going to surprising and affecting places.

I've read some valid criticisms that the doc needlessly neglects to answer some questions about how things happened, and speeds through certain steps in the story. Also that it is fairly straightforward and flat in it's approach and uninspired technically. All fair. But sometimes a terrific true tale, and the wonderful people in it are enough to make those kinds of flaws seem unimportant. Yes I'd love to know even more details. But what the film gave me was enough to know I'll never forget it.

...music is the closest we'll get to real magic.

[steveo122 · 8/10 · 18 January 2018]

Very well made documentary. From the depths of abject poverty and environmental travesty, the transformative power of music to lift the human spirit reinforces my opinion that music is the closest we'll get to real magic. A man comes to this community to help with the trash/pollution issues. Overwhelmed by reality, he stays to teach the children music. With more students than instruments, he enlists a ganchero/carpenter to begin building instruments from items pulled from the landfill. He is a good teacher. He is a good man. The effects are equal parts inspiration for the human spirit and dismay at the human condition. Either one should/could bring a tear to your eye.

Music of the gancheros

[steveo122 · 8/10 · 12 January 2018]

Very well made documentary. From the depths of abject poverty and environmental travesty, the transformative power of music to lift the human spirit reinforces my opinion that music is the closest we'll get to real magic. A man comes to this community to help with the trash/pollution issues. Overwhelmed by reality, he stays to teach the children music. With more students than instruments, he enlists a ganchero/carpenter to begin building instruments from items pulled from the landfill. He is a good teacher. He is a good man. The effects are equal parts inspiration for the human spirit and dismay at the human condition. Either one should/could bring a tear to your eye. (PS: They toured with Megadeth)

Good movie and it hit me personally

[paraguaijin · 7/10 · 8 October 2017]

Well this review might look more like a personal account (or confession) than a proper film criticism. Feel free to flag it as "Not useful", but I had to take it off my chest. You see, I live in the same country, the same metropolitan area even. The tag-line "the world sends us garbage, we give them back music".. Well it's me. I send them garbage. So I felt quite ashamed while watching this documentary.

I came across these children on the street, and I ignored them. They were just part of those anonymous heroes that pick our dump and separate the recyclable materials from what is actual garbage. My country, I admit, is not big on separating trash, we put it all on in a plastic bag and hope it goes away. And away it goes, to them.

Then on a certain art venue I saw them again. They look more mature, their music sounds more mature as well. They became professionals and I'm glad for them but mostly my interest was on how Megadeth and other bands put us back on the map of big concerts. Even Paul McCartney finally made his first show here. Again I ignored those kids.

I didn't see this movie on the theaters, but on TV recently. And I instantly recognized all the quirks and places, all the faces and languages. Parenthesis: there's a lot of Guarani (the one that doesn't sound Spanish, in case you guys noticed something off) in this film and it will be featured more in the future as Paraguay finally gets a film industry of our own.

The movie itself has all the markings of a commercial, tear-inducing epic story. The typical structure "from rags to riches", then tragedy strikes but the heroes rise from the ashes (well, from the mud in this case) and there's a glint of hope. Wasn't it very convenient that a disaster happened so they could show our heroes going through the fall after the high? Welp...

When I saw the images of the Paraguay flood back in 2014 I was like "stupid poor people, why were they so close to the river? just move away". This documentary shows WHY those poor people stay there: it's their home. Yes there's a lot of garbage there but also lots of memories and hopes. And I felt quite ashamed of myself for being so insensitive.

I won't say that this documentary will switch me into an avid ecologist --funny as it is, Favio Chavez also kinda failed in his main profession of environmental technology engineer, but instead became a great music teacher-- but from now on I will never disregard people on the streets as "garbage".

From recycling themselves, from believing that something good can come out of all the bad, and from their passion and discipline, these people showed their true value to the world and me.

Not What I Expected, Somewhat Inspiring

[robsta23 · 7/10 · 30 July 2015]

When I heard the premise for Landfill Harmonic in an e-mail I received, I expected it to be a more depressing documentary than it turned out to be. I was expecting these children who played the instruments made from trash to be trying to find happiness in what they were doing, but I had no idea they were part of a legitimate orchestra which went on to perform with some pretty big American bands.

I'm not extremely well-versed in documentaries though I consider myself to be a film buff; I really prefer fictional stories that are well-executed to the feel of documentaries which are filled with interviews and a lot of footage which was filmed first before organizing it into the best story the filmmakers can make. That's how I felt about this documentary in particular: it felt too much like it was edited in a scrambled manner instead of telling a truly compelling story that I could get lost in.

Having seen probably only a handful of documentaries in my life I was glad I had the chance to see a foreign documentary; I think I have only seen two including Landfill Harmonic which I can remember.

The general structure of this film was interesting: there was sort of a 15 to 20 minute introduction in which they explained how the musicians went about making musical instruments from trash, and they briefly showed the actual process of making some of the instruments. After this introduction, the rest of the film focused on the journey of the different kids and of the orchestra as a whole, showing how music strongly benefited all of their lives. Towards the conclusion of the movie it seemed to get repetitive with letting the audience know how successful the orchestra became, but I guess the movie had to sell its point like any other movie.

It was a delight to see this movie through MKE Film for free, but I am not sure if I would revisit it in the next few years.