Here be treasure
Channel: CAM/MAC Anthropologie / Anthropology / U Ottawa
Date: 2018-12-06

Step behind the curtain with Afnan and Jesse, a dumpster diving duo with intimate knowledge of the patterns of waste in the big city. Watch as they pick their way through trash receptacles, sifting through packaging, cardboard and other unwanted items, to uncover the hidden treasures their society neglects to account for. 

Shot in the plainly visible backdoors of business plazas and a moving vehicle within the city of Ottawa, armed only with their cell phones and some gloves, these human racoons offer a view into a world scarcely explored by most. Uncovering an incomprehensibly large trove of wealth that is lost due to the inefficiencies of current market structures and business practice, the potential wealth and utility that can be employed using all these recovered resources, and share their musings on the absurdity of it all. Afnan and Jesse engage as ambassadors, storytellers and subjects of a culture that remains underground and outside of conventional notions of property rights.

Shining light on the practices of dumpster diving, offering insight into the technique, process, safety measures and technology employed by human garbage-picking subjects, the film makers seek to make this practice more accessible to a wider audience. They concur “That there is just too much.” In the absence of any substantial level of social organization to deal with the volume of highly valuable items discarded as waste, they open the door to the viewer to step behind the curtain, to enter the world of waste exploration.