An award-winning photographer, Mike Glad is now an Oscar-nominated film producer.

Alumnus Mike Glad will never forget in 2002 visiting the Guatemala City garbage dump, a place generations of men, women and children have called home.

"It was sort of like I was looking into the depths of Hell," said Glad, IE 68. "I looked down there and just couldn't believe it. There are 2,000 guajeros. Those are the people who gather the trash. There are tractors in motion. I said, 'To heck with it. I've got to pursue this. I've got to know what's going on.'"

Glad's experience prompted him to make a powerful documentary film. "Recycled Life," which he produced and co-wrote, is a story of the thousands of Guatemalans who scavenged for food in the toxic landfill's waste and those who lived there. The 38-minute film has received an Oscar nomination for best documentary short from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The owner of 22 Midas auto-repair shops in northern California and an award-winning photographer, Glad also has the world's most comprehensive collection of animation art, which includes images from such films as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Lady and the Tramp" and "Yellow Submarine."

Over the years, Glad has met many people in the film industry through his art collection, including his "Recycled Life" director, Leslie Iwerks. Iwerks' late grandfather, Ub Iwerks, was one of Walt Disney's star animators and the first to sketch Mickey Mouse.
After visiting the dump, Glad, who has a home in Guatemala, pitched the idea of the film to Iwerks and took her to Guatemala City to see the dump for herself. Production on the film began in 2002.

Glad personally financed the film, "cutting every corner possible known to mankind" to raise the more than $100,000 needed for the project.

Production on "Recycled Life" wrapped in 2006. The film was screened at 14 film festivals and was named best documentary short at six. HBO has purchased the rights to the film.

Even though Glad and Iwerks were in Los Angeles on the morning of Jan. 23 waiting for the entire list of Academy Award nominations to be posted online, they first learned of their film's nomination for best documentary short from a friend in Guatemala — it was the first of many congratulatory calls they received that morning.

Glad hopes that those who are able to view his film will come away with a newfound respect for the world's less fortunate.

"I want people to understand that there's dignity in a situation that you would look at and otherwise conclude there is none," he said. "I want them to understand that and then appreciate what they have."