Recommended for Grades 5-8

“The world sends us garbage. We send back music.” This is the message of the Recycled Orchestra, the most unlikely musical group you can imagine, which performs on instruments made of tin cans, scrap metal, old tubes, and other bits of junk that were tossed in the trash. Based in a notorious slum outside the Paraguayan capital—home to one of the largest landfills in South America—this is the story of a visionary music teacher, a resourceful craftsman, and an intrepid group of children who build something unimaginably beautiful out of other people’s trash. When their story went viral, the young musicians were thrust on the international stage. Leaving home for the first time, they played in the great halls of Europe, Japan, and the United States—a world they’d never imagined—and their lives were changed forever.

Consider this documentary film if you are exploring environmental, musical, or humanitarian topics, or are interested in the Spanish language.