Musical Recycling: Paraguayan Youth Turn Landfill Trash Into an Orchestra (Video)
If you close your eyes as Juan Manuel Chavez plays the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, it would sound like any other instrument from your average music shop. However, open them and you’d see the 19-year-old’s cello is actually composed of an oil drum, wood and old kitchen tools — all recycled trash. That’s because where Chavez comes from, a real violin is worth more than a house.
The first teaser for the marvelous-looking documentary “Landfill Harmonic” is making the rounds online. It centers on a “recycled orchestra” in Cateura, Paraguay, that uses instruments fashioned by impoverished slum residents.
Check out their heartwarming story in this trailer: