GARBAGE DREAMS follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo.

It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people." Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

"Garbage Dreams" is a 20th-century coming-of-age story that follows three teenage boys growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. When I first visited the garbage village ten years ago, I understood why it was often referred to as "Dante’s inferno." Home to 60,000 Zaballeen, it is a world folded onto itself, an impenetrable labyrinth of narrow roadways camouflaged by trash. Garbage is piled three stories high and the smell of rotting vegetables permeates the waste-covered streets. In the midst of it all, the dirt, the poverty, the smell of the garbage, plastic granulators, cloth-grinders and paper and cardboard compacters hum constantly. Recycling 80% of the trash they collect from resident’s homes, the Zaballeen have transformed their garbage neighborhood into a busy recycling enclave.

I was quickly made welcome into this extraordinarily resilient and joyful community and the time I would spend there affected me in profound ways, re-calibrating my notions of community, family, ability, and sustainability. The trash-piled streets where the Zaballeen live, which initially seemed terrifying and dirty to me, started to look like the site of a community eminently worthy of preservation and admiration. When I returned years later, the Recycling School has just opened in the neighborhood. It is run by the Spirit of Youth, an association of Zaballeen, and its focus is to turn the Zaballeen's century-old recycling trade into a 21st-century green job. The Zaballeen had established The Recycling School at a crucial moment, as the appearance of multinational waste-removal corporations in Cairo threatened to overturn their occupations and traditions.

Of course, as a filmmaker, I quickly saw potential for a documentary in this David vs. Goliath tale, but it was the teenagers, students and their personal stories that really drew me. The desire of the teenage boys to gain knowledge, to develop their trade and to succeed in life through diligence, determination and persistence was quite inspirational. In addition to the fact that their way of life an  community was in jeopardy, these kids were also facing typical teenage concerns: fashion, pop music and their workout routine, and their aspirations to be the coolest and most popular. Over time, I saw more of myself in them and was reminded of our shared humanity. My desire to share this experience with others is what compelled me to make a documentary. The larger story of recycling and the work the Zaballeen was simply a window into the lives of these young Egyptian men. It was their struggle to maintain their dreams for a workable sustainable future, even as those dreams seem impossible to realize that was the remarkable story that needed to be told.

I hope that my friends follow their dreams.

I hope the bigger world will recognize that it is these dreamers who become leaders.

2009 SXSW Film Festival, USA

2009 Phoenix Film Festival, USA
Won World Cinema Award for Best Director
Won World Cinema Audience Award

2009 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Netherlands

2009 Bermuda Film Festival, UK
Won Best Documentary Award

2009 Vail Film Festival, USA
Won Best Documentary Award

2009 Nashville International Film Festival, USA
Won Al Gore Reel Current Award

2009 International Documentary Association, USA
Won IDA Humanitas Award

2009 Dubai Film Festival, Qatar
Won Special Jury Award

2009 Hollywood Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best Documentary

2009 Lone Star Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best Documentary

2009 Connecticut Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best “Green” Film

2009 Mexico International Film Festival
Won Golden Palm Award

2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA
Won Award for Best Cinematography

2009 Landlocked Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best Documentary

2009 Montana CINE International Film Festival, USA
Won Special Jury Award

2009 Ojai International Film Festival, USA
Won Audience’s Human Spirit Award

2009 Nevada Film Festival, USA
Won Silver Star Award for Documentary Film

2009 Woodstock Film Festival, USA
Won James Lyons Award for Best Documentary Editing

2010 Director’s Guild of America, USA
Won Best Documentary Nomination

2010 Sebastopol Film Festival, USA
Won Special Jury Award

2010 Sguardi Altrove, Italy
Won College of Milan’s Youth Prize

2010 Sguardi Altrove, Italy
Won Jury’s Special Mention Award

2010 Ashland Independent Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best Documentary

2010 Santa Cruz Film Festival, USA
Won Audience Award for Best International Film

2010 Cinemambiente Environmental Film Festival, Italy
Won Jury’s Torino Provincial Special Award

2010 Eco Films Rodos, Greece
Won Jury’s First Prize for Feature Length Film

2009 Cleveland International Film Festival, USA

2009 Philadelphia Film Festival, USA

2009 Tallahassee Film Festival, USA

2009 Nashville Film Festival, USA

2009 Newport Beach Film Festival, USA

2009 Maryland Film Festival, USA

2009 Seattle International Film Festival, USA

2009 Indianapolis Film Festival, USA

2009 Roxbury Film Festival, USA

2009 Ferndale Film Festival, USA

2009 Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, USA

2009 Camden International Film Festival, USA

2009 Arab Film Festival, USA

2009 United Nations Associations Film Festival, USA

2009 Olympia Film Festival, USA

2009 Denver Film Festival, USA

2009 Greenbuild Film Festival, USA

2009 New Orleans Middle East Film Festival, USA

2009 Tales From Planet Earth, USA

2010 Wild & Scenic Film Festival, USA

2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA

2010 Portland International Film Festival, USA

2010 Tempo Documentary Film Festival, Sweden

2010 One World Human Rights Film Festival, Czech Republic

2010 Hot Docs Festival, Canada

2010 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, USA

2010 Sedona International Film Festival, USA

2010 Leeds Young People Festival, UK

2010 Movies That Matter Film Series, Canada

2010 Human Rights Arts & Film Festival Melbourne, Australia

2010 Al Jazeera Film Festival, Qatar

2010 Arab Film Festival of Minnesota, USA

2010 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, USA

2010 Ashland Independent Film Festival, USA

2010 Minneapolis/St. Paul Intl. Film Festival USA

2010 Projecting Change Film Festival, Canada

2010 Doc à Tunis, Tunisia

2010 Planete Doc Review Warsaw, Poland

2010 REEL Earth Environmental, New Zealand

2010 Sembrando Cine Environmental Film Festival, Peru

2010 Ischia Film Festival, Italy

2010 Parnu Intl. Documentary Film Festival, Estonia

2010 Santa Barbara Human Rights Film Festival USA

2010 Palm Beach Intl. Film Festival, USA

2010 Greendance Film Festival, USA

2010 Santa Cruz Film Festival, USA

“Expertly weaving personal fears, family tensions and political action, GARBAGE DREAMS records the tremblings of a culture at a crossroads.
Jeannette Casoulis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Stunning debut… Tech credits are aces. As fascinating as [Iskander’s] anthological revelations are, it’s her lensing that grants her subjects immense dignity (they never appear “other” in their poverty) and her film its curious beauty.”
Ronnie Scheib, VARIETY

“An evocative examination of the clash between tradition and modernism…. Championed by Oscar winner Al Gore and the spur for a million-dollar donation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ‘Garbage’ could ride its sociological importance to Oscar recognition”
Andrew Schenker, VILLAGE VOICE

“Its portrait of perseverance and ecological commitment is enlightening”
Joe Neumaier, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“GARBAGE DREAMS is a moving story of young men searching for ways to eke out a living for their families and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the planet. Mai Iskander guides us into a ‘garbage village,’ a place so different from our own, and yet the choices they face there are so hauntingly familiar.

Ultimately, GARBAGE DREAMS makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress.”
Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States of America and Nobel Peace Prize Winner