Burtynsky's Wake Up Call: Jennifer Baichwal's Manufactured Landscapes

If there is anything that shows the vast consumptive needs of progress then Jennifer Baichwal's film Manufactured Landscapes definitely hits the mark. It's subject is landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky is interested primarily with man's ability to drastically change his landscapes, often with destructive consequences. Without being preachy, nor heavy handed in its approach, this film sinks the viewer right into a few enormous, beautiful and heartbreaking scenes to witness our global world with a sense of immediacy.

The initial long take (about 5 minutes) of a single factory floor in China that never seems to have an end is incredibly intense and sets the stage for what we in the West do not often come to conceptualize - the place where a great majority of our 'stuff' comes from, and is returned to eventually. There are plenty of arresting moments in this film, as we are caught both gasping at the beauty of the images or at the destructiveness of mankind's insatiable hunger.

Watching this film felt like visiting the slaughterhouse at times, but again, without heavy-handedness. The pictures and the subject we are witness to speak for themselves.

The scope of Burtynsky's work and the filmmaker's sensibility to further extend the borders of his vision are a great pair. What might be overlooked, or unknown, in a single photograph is greatly enhanced by the eye of the filmmaker and a few choice words by Burtynsky to express a hint of something that opens the door further.

One example is the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China, how it changes the landscape so completely, displacing millions of people, who tear down their own towns brick by brick in its wake. If this wasn't enough Burtynsky notes that the dam was so immense it created a 400 km lake. When the water was released, scientists detected a wobble in the Earth's rotation.

It really drives home the impact that we have on our planet. Burtynsky's photos and the film's further revelation shows how large a footprint humans are leaving all over the world.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough.