‘Scrap’ Gets Recyled in Fascinating Documentary on April 11
First Run Features presentsa new documentary by Stacey TenenbaumSCRAPComing to Streaming & DVD April 11, 2023
Discover the vast and strangely beautiful places where things go to die and meet the people who collect, restore, and recycle the world’s scrap. SCRAP scratches beneath flaking paint and rusting metal to reveal the beauty and pathos in what we leave behind. SCRAP is a love letter to the things we use in our daily lives. Using soaring aerials to capture the size and scope of often surreal landscapes, this cinematic doc tells the story of people who have deep connections to objects that have reached their ‘end of life’. Together these stories convey a deeper environmental and human message about our relationship to things, the sadness we feel at their eventual loss, and the joy that we can find in giving them a new purpose.
The film focuses on artists around the world who are transforming scrap or are working with it in other ways, employing their creativity to help solve environmental problems. For example, sculptor John Lopez uses old farm equipment to make huge sculptures of bison and animals that used to roam the Plains where he lives; architect Tchely Shin makes buildings out of old ships, like the discarded ocean liner he turned into an art installation that is now a cafe located in SeorakThe film focuses on artists around the world who are transforming scrap or are working with it in other ways, employing their creativity to help solve environmental problems. For example, sculptor John Lopez uses old farm equipment to make huge sculptures of bison and animals that used to roam the Plains where he lives; architect Tchely Shin makes buildings out of old ships, like the discarded ocean liner he turned into an art installation that is now a cafe located in Seorak-myeon, Korea.-myeon, Korea.
Dean Lewis is the owner and creative mastermind behind Old Car City in White, Georgia. Dean grew up in a junkyard which was started by his parents in the1930s to sell used cars and parts. He decided to turn the car scrap business into a car museum and living art piece, where people can experience nature and photograph the old cars. Dean’s collection includes over 4400 historic cars spread out over 35 acres of land.
“Scrap is a quietly enthralling and far-flung documentary journey into the realm of human detritus large and small, and a consideration of the many ways in which the debris is reclaimed by artists for use in their creative endeavors or collected by people who see the beauty of legacy in it. Tenenbaum’s probing and philosophical narration, her interviews with diverse waste reclaimers, and the film’s extraordinarily beautiful cinematography lead to a calm and contemplative state of mind, making Scrap a peaceful meditation about our human nature and our stuff.”– Jennifer Merin, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Director Biography
Stacey Tenenbaum is an award-winning producer and director. Stacey is passionate about making cinematic films that are filled with humor and heart. In 2014 she founded H2L Productions, a boutique documentary film production company specializing in crafting character-driven stories. H2L’s first documentary Shiners premiered at Hot Docs and was broadcast on the Documentary Channel, TV5, and PBS. Stacey’s second film Pipe Dreams also premiered at Hot Docs and was broadcast on the Documentary Channel, NHK, SVT and PBS. SCRAP is her third feature documentary.“Things are made cheaply to be used and thrown away. Obsolescence is built into products and consumers are encouraged to upgrade rather than fix. This throw-away culture creates an incredible amount of waste, but I feel it is also leading to a certain alienation. People just aren’t developing deeper connections with things or with each other. I figured that if I can get people to care about objects, then they might waste less and want to keep these things in their lives longer. So, the film’s environmental message and aesthetics are really tied together.”
