Yesterday BMW Guggenheim Lab launched a new round of public programs in its hi-tech pavilion on Houston Street that address the theme, Confronting Comfort. A series of films, workshops, talks and tours explore how urban environments can be made more responsive to people’s needs, how a balance can be found between notions of individual versus collective comfort, and how the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility can be met.

The pervasive problem of trash in urban environments is one of the subjects under the microscope for the next three weeks, and Mai Iskander’s documentary Garbage Dreams, which was screened last night, placed the issue in sharp perspective.

Trash is the stuff of life in the slums of Cairo, as seen by Mira Iskander in her documentary film, Garbage Dreams. Photos: Peggy Roalf.

Filmed over a period of four years, Garbage Dreams follows three young men who live in the slums of Cairo, where there is no municipal trash collection service. They are called Zaballeen, Arabic for “garbage people,” and as one boy notes, they are viewed by outsiders as the Nothing Class. In their Coptic Christian community, however, collecting and recycling the city’s trash is a way of life and a source of pride in the fact that their recycling rate is 80%. But their future is placed in jeopardy when the city hires foreign carting companies to take over the task.

The film develops a sense of urgency as the boys, their families, their school, and a dedicated social worker confront the growing economic and social crisis, revealing a community that struggles to modernize while maintaining a strong cultural identity.

Upcoming public programs include a 6 pm screening on Sunday, August 28^th of Flow, Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary that builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling freshwater supply and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

On Wednesday, August 31^st at 7 pm, David Simon, best known as producer and writer of the critically acclaimed television series The Wire (2002–08) and Treme (2010–), will give a talk on the complexities of urban life today.

On Wednesday, September 7 at 6 pm, a screening of Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s Academy Award–nominated documentary, The Garden, will be followed by a Q&A with Kennedy.

On Friday, September 9, join a biodiesel-powered bus tour of South Bronx power plants, waste treatment facilities, and new parks, urban farms, green buildings, greenways, and green jobs formed out of the forgotten corners of the city. RSVP required.

There are many more free programs on the calendar, and the Lab is open Wednesdays-Sunday until October 16^th. BMW Guggenheim Lab, First Park, Second Avenue and Houston Street, NY, NY.

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