{"id":21641,"date":"2023-11-08T07:33:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T15:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmconnection.com\/?p=21641"},"modified":"2025-05-12T02:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:07:24","slug":"queen-of-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/filmconnection.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/08\/queen-of-trash\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen of Trash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mantra Marie Bedross is a lifelong treasure hunter who, over the past four years, has channeled her obsession with stuff into a career in film as a prop master. Her work ethic, passion, and personal traumas have propelled her, at an astounding speed, into an insanely successful career\u2014 already having worked on several full budget features, including, Shortcomings, You Hurt My Feelings, and Happiness for Beginners. <\/em><\/p>\n

The first thing you\u2019ve got to know about Marie Bedross is that she is a Harlem-raised, New York City hustler.<\/p>\n

She picked me up from my apartment in her rumbling boat of a van with an all red interior and tiger stripe decor. Because of the writers\u2019 strike, she\u2019s been on her first break from production in 3 years, and has been dedicating her time towards her side hustle; reselling antiques and production waste as a means of saving usable items from both landfills and oblivion. She\u2019d been dropping off furniture and trinkets to clients all day, and assured me she was exhausted, but still overflowed with a playful and welcoming energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeep-beep, b!@%h!\u201d she said to me, careening her head out of the driver\u2019s side window; her salon-approved long curly brown hair spilling out of the sides of her dirty black work hoodie. Marie is tough, but still stunning in a classically feminine way. The kind of girl who all the boys on the block wanted to kiss, despite the fact that she could have beaten them all up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you live in East New York?\u201d I asked, climbing in. \u201cHow do you like it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d she said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t live over here. I don’t want to walk out my door and see a bunch of baristas with stick n\u2019 pokes, I wanna walk out my door and see a bunch of grandmas and dudes selling Gatorades outta shopping carts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI only ever come out this way to go to Jacob Riis,\u201d I admitted as we entered the neighborhood, referring to the iconic bohemian beach in Rockaway, famous for drawing a diverse set of artists, queers, and eccentrics in the summer months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, I haven\u2019t been there in a minute,\u201d she said. \u201cHave you been to Dead Horse Bay? It\u2019s amazing, a whole beach filled with shimmering broken glass of every color. Maybe we should go?\u201d She paused, slowing the car slightly, \u201cNah, it\u2019s getting dark, not tryna get jumped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Marie\u2019s apartment is an expertly constructed shrine to her loves of trash-picking, dumpster-diving, thrifting, and hoarding. The walls are lined with paintings and vintage posters, patterns leap from the carpets and upholstered furniture, and carefully composed altars adorn every surface. The way in which she\u2019s curated the space, however, feels somehow clean and spacious, nothing out of place, not even a coffee mug left in the sink.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a little snack?\u201d she asked. She set to work making us hummus from scratch, slicing up cucumbers and tomato parsley to make a fattoush salad, and rubbing pita with olive oil and za\u2019atar before roasting it over the fire on her stove.<\/p>\n

This is how you host, I thought, as we sat down at her dining room table with the feast plated and presented as if at a restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019d you start working as a prop master?\u201d I asked, scooping some hummus onto my plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working this random ArtCube gig one day, patching & painting walls for a \u2018weed museum\u2019 installation, and this dude I was working with got a call asking for an assistant prop master. I had no idea what that was, but like a doofus, in an Australian accent, I just blurted out \u2018I\u2019ll do it mate\u2026..\u2019 So, the prop master of this Netflix movie ended up calling me and was like, \u2018Can you come to Connecticut tomorrow morning for a tier one?\u2019 I had no idea what he was talking about, but I said yes, and the next day I was at the Hilton in Connecticut and stayed for 2 months. It came naturally to me. I love stuff and I came from working in Michelin restaurants, so I\u2019m hyper-vigilant, hyper-organized, and hyper-prepared. From that job on I kept meeting people who offered me prop work and I just said yes every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly,\u201d I said, adding some fattoush to my plate. \u201cI\u2019m not even totally sure what a prop master does?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prop master runs the entire property department,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe handle every tangible object the actors interact with, like food, phones, money and all that, plus the director\u2019s chairs they sit on between takes, apple boxes, yada yada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven things that require special handling, like firearms?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYup. We handle guns unless there\u2019s a bigger budget and you can bring in an armorer\/weapons master. I did a heist scene with Julia Louis Dreyfus and it was my first time holding a gun so I had to have an on-set police officer demonstrate to the crew how the gun would be used. Which, of course, she loved and really hammed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mantra<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wild that you\u2019ve become so successful so quickly,\u201d I said. \u201cWhy do you think that is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was made for this s&!t.\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know you could get paid to be a hoarder!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen did this obsession with things begin?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been a thing,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cMy bedroom growing up was an emporium of s#!t. Anything I found. Anything that seemed like it had a story, I\u2019d bring home in my mom\u2019s shopping cart. I grew up in Harlem and would just go around my neighborhood when my mom was in a mood and I had to leave the house. Eviction days at the projects\u2019 dumpsters, stuff I found on the street. My mom said my room was like Fat Albert\u2019s junkyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

“My mom said my room was like Fat Albert\u2019s junkyard.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I looked around her apartment, at the multitude of trinkets, souvenirs, and assorted kitsch, but couldn’t find anything that seemed like it would be featured on an episode of Hoarders. \u201cI mean,\u201d I said. \u201cEverything here seems either useful or beautiful. Is your hoarding, ultimately, more utilitarian or sentimental?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s utilitarian\u2026. it breaks my heart to see useful things end up in a landfill,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there\u2019s also something sentimental. You know, at 15, I came home from school one day and my mom had thrown my stuff out and painted the walls white and said she was going to start charging me rent or I could find a new place to live. I’ve been on my own since, and keeping stuff is precious to me. Stuff makes me feel human. I used to be scared that if I gave up my possessions I\u2019d die. I\u2019ve struggled with suicidal thoughts my whole life after an abusive childhood but I\u2019d feel so guilty leaving my friends a big hoarder mess to clean up, so my stuff kept me alive, and it\u2019s good to sort stuff and keep the brain busy when she starts to wander. But anyway, now that I live in a rent stabilized apartment and I work in props where I sort through warehouses of junk for hours on end, I\u2019ve gotten way better about not keeping things for the sake of keeping them versus keeping just the truly special stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve struggled with suicidal thoughts my whole life after an abusive childhood but I\u2019d feel so guilty leaving my friends a big hoarder mess to clean up, so my stuff kept me alive…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt sounds like, in a way, you carried stuff with you to create a home wherever you went,\u201d I said. \u201cWere you able to save anything from your mom\u2019s place that you still have?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah definitely,\u201d she said, standing up. She took me on a mini tour of the things she\u2019d moved from couch to couch, from squat to squat, and from co-op to co-op, for 15 years. There were photographs and paintings and little match books and pocket sized sculptures. Perched atop her refrigerator was a small Precious Moments ceramic bunny rabbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cPicturing you carrying this ceramic bunny around from the time you were 15 is hilarious,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know me,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cI guess there\u2019s another element to it too. When I find free stuff, when I find treasure, it feels like I\u2019m f*$king the system\u2013 like I can subvert class by finding free luxury items. My mom was always working when I was growing up and I barely would see her, and when I did see her, we did not get along. The few good times we\u2019d share were when we\u2019d pull up to Dean and Deluca after they closed and steal their trash\u2026 There would be gorgeous pastries, bagels, unopened jams and spreads.. All free! Felt like the only time she was proud of me was when I\u2019d score us free stuff. I think as an Arab woman from a working class family in Brooklyn, my mom always felt less than. But in Arab culture you never admit you need help, you put on a facade of classiness so others can be jealous of you. She surrounded herself with wealthier friends and presented herself as a completely different person than the woman I\u2019d see at home drowning in piles of junk and passed out after working 16 hour shifts. I think she just didn\u2019t know what to do with me growing up cuz I broke her perfect facade. I was a little freak. I didn\u2019t shave my armpits, I wore crazy clothes and I said everything on my mind, so in public I was an embarrassment to her, but in private when I\u2019d find the good free stuff, she was proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you worry your hoarder tendencies could become destructive?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it used to be completely illogical. But now that I have these outlets\u2013 propping films and my antique business. It doesn’t have to be an obsession, it can be a job\u2026. That\u2019s why I\u2019m a freak for organization. I know where literally every possession I own is, whether it\u2019s in my prop kit, my antique storage or down to every labeled drawer in my house. Also working in kitchens taught me how to run a tight ship. I may accumulate a lot of stuff but it always has a place. That\u2019s really all being a prop master is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I\u2019m sure having a stable long term home helps a lot,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely\u201d she said. \u201cI certainly have less need now, but I think that might come more from working with so much stuff. Things are still special, but there\u2019s more stability in my life so I don\u2019t need to cling to every damn thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the stuff you\u2019ve been selling on Ma\u2019s Funiture Garden<\/a>!\u201d I said. \u201cIt\u2019s all super nice and so cheap!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks yeah .. I could charge way more,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I just want to find these things a good home, I just want to free myself of it so I can keep treasure hunting. I gotta stay busy and stay picking, cuz beautiful things keep finding me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mantra<\/p>\n

I turned off my recorder and Marie made us dirty martinis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can give you a ride home,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanna go on a night drive anyway.\u201d We finished our drinks and headed downstairs before climbing back into her van. \u201cI like to end my day driving around and making music. Part of my therapy. I hope you don\u2019t mind.\u201d She pulled a set of pedals, a speaker, and a microphone out from under her seat and started the car. \u201cTesting, testing,\u201d she said into the mike, turning the speaker’s volume to max.<\/p>\n

As we drove from East New York into Ridgewood, she layered her singing voice, over and over, on top of itself, making a harmony of eerie sirens. As we drove, the lights from the city blurred by and wind whipped through the open windows. Occasionally she\u2019d stop the song to yell something at frat boys on the street, using either the demonic or squirrel sounding voice modulators that were built into the microphone. \u201cThis ain\u2019t a NYU campus, get out the road!\u201d \u201cYou running late for yogalates?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wow, I thought. What a goddess among men. The weirdo for our age. The true queen of trash.<\/p>\n

The car slowed dramatically and I bucked forward in my seat. I looked over and Marie was pointing towards a nearby curb. In full squirrel-augmented excitement, she cried out, \u201cCheck out that end table!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mantra Marie Bedross is a lifelong treasure hunter who, over the past four years, has channeled her obsession with stuff into a career in film as a prop master. Her work ethic, passion, and personal traumas have propelled her, at an astounding speed, into an insanely successful career\u2014 already having worked on several full budget […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":21642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}