Manufactured Landscapes

Trailer—Manufactured Landscapes

Manufactured Landscapes_720p(480P)

source: Manufactured Landscapes

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer, especially famous for his depictions of industrial landscapes. His work has granted him cult-like devotion from his mostly local fans until this film was released last year. While his work isn't in the mainstream chic, it has gained a much larger following than it had previously. The film Manufactured Landscapes is a collection of Burtynsky's photos of the industrial countryside of China and other places. Edward's photos are renowned for the subliminal beauty they contain. Nevertheless, this beauty doesn't translate well to the motion-picture format. While the images are breathtaking, they are strewn together with little expository commentary. The images are supposed to relate to the descriptions Edward provides and they do most times. However, not all images are explained sufficiently. I wouldn't expect all the images to receive commentary, but descriptions near the bottom of the screen would have aided the film in effectively communicating as the book does (I feel able to include this statement given that Burtynsky has published a print version of the film). Baichwal employs a naturalistic approach to film-making. Her camera work is reminiscent of hand-held work of Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project. The dialog, presumably between Burtynsky and his crew (or locals from his current location) is realistic and perhaps unscripted. The film has no plot, protagonists, nor created sets. So as you may imagine, it is able to progress forward in any direction it chooses. While this approach is unique, it isn't very effective. The pictures appear quickly and Burtynsky discusses them, then he moves to another location (usually in China) and interviews residents or presents new photographs. The audience is forced to rely on the images themselves to convey Baichwal's and Burtynsky's joined message. The images appear consecutively, and mimic the process of viewing them in a book, but without knowledge of their identity, which lessens their effect. I must also admit that Baichwal does provide a large collection of images of modern China, regardless of how overwhelming it may be. While I wish the film did not move to so many places in favor of many photographs of one place, this technique is inconsequential. Edward mentions that he wishes to portray China's new identity as an objective observer. It has no political stance. Manufactured Landscapes is a wonderful example of the necessary distinction between enthusiasm and skill. Edward Burtynsky's photographs are provocative and Baichwal appears to appreciate his photos but this material isn't able to translate into a ninety minute film. The material is not adapted properly into its new artistic format. The images are the focus, when the film format would encourage Burtynsky to discuss his work. The photographs are rightly given full attention in a print source. Perhaps the motion picture would have succeeded in this transition if Burtynsky had described his experiences with references to the images. Their stark appearance on screen is a microcosm of the film's unfortunate ineptitude. P.S. I was able to locate a copy of the Manufactured Landscapes picture book, and I give it my heartiest recommendation.

I had heard this film was a study of a landscape photographer's art by presenting the beauty in man's deconstructing the natural landscape. It certainly showed the laborious activities to find locations, setup shots, and capture stark images whose final destinations were art studios worldwide. Put together in moving pictures it is truly a horror show. This film oozes by you supplanting the shock of ghastly images with gentle waves of a wonderful industrial soundtrack that guides you like on slow moving river. Each sequence stands on its own, but in combination you get deeper and deeper into the feeling of overwhelming inevitability. There are few words, this allowing the grandeur in what is shown to preach in its own way. An awful, massive factory filled with human automata who live in hopelessly lifeless dormitories. Individuals dying early while rummaging for recyclable scraps in mountains of our E-waste. The birthing of gigantic ships and their destruction by hand in giant graveyards. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest industrial project in human history and likely for all time. The time lapse as a city dies and is simultaneously reborn into a replica of modernity that purposefully destroys all relics of the culture that was. The most terrifying image for me was a dam engineer explaining that the most important function of the dam was flood control. The shot shifts to the orchard behind the spokesperson where you witness the level of the last flood by the toxic water having eaten the bark from the trees, demonstrating that nothing but the most hideous vermin could be living in the waters. The obvious not being stated is far more powerful than your normal preachy Save the Earth documentaries. The artist Edward Burtynsky explains the method wonderfully. 'By not saying what you should see … many people today sit in an uncomfortable spot where you don't necessarily want to give up what we have but we realize what we're doing is creating problems that run deep. It is not a simple right or wrong. It needs a whole new way of thinking'. The subtlety of this descends into an either/or proposition, but the film images scream that the decision has very much been made in favor of the dark side. Though never stated directly in any way, as the waves of what you witness wash away from your awareness and you contemplate, there is only one conclusion possible … we are doomed. The progress of mankind that is inexorable from our natures leaves behind carnage that this artist finds terrifying beauty in. What he is actually capturing are the tracks of we the lemmings rushing unconsciously toward our own demise. Unlike most films with environmental themes, this one ends with no call to arms. It argues basically what's the point, but makes certain you place the blame properly on all of us equally.

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer who makes art out of the least "artful" objects imaginable. Everyday items such as crates, boxes, metal containers, etc. - items which most of us perceive as utilitarian at best and dismiss as being utterly without aesthetic merit - are instead converted into glorious objects d'art by Burtynsky's camera. He achieves this result by focusing on the recurring colors and geometric patterns that are apparently ever present in the industrialized world - for those perceptive enough to spot them, that is. Even heaps of compacted trash can become objects of beauty when seen through Burtynsky's lens (but didn't we already know that from "Wall-E"?). He is particularly interested in photographing areas like mines and shipyards where Man has already made incursions into nature - which may explain why at times even the people in his pictures (i.e. the workers in those places), with their uniform clothing and robotic movements, become part of the industrial landscape. "Manufactured Landscapes," a documentary about Burtynsky's work, has much of the feel of a "Koyaanisqatsi" about it as it dazzles us with its richly variegated kaleidoscope of images and patterns. Indeed, director Jennifer Baichwal and cinematographer Peter Mettler capture the essence of the original photos in purely cinematic terms, as their own camera records Burtynsky and his assistant running photo shoots at a factory in China, a dockyard in Bangladesh, and the construction site at the massive Three Rivers Gorge Dam project in China. With their fluid camera-work, the filmmakers match point-for-point the beauty of Burtynsky's images. In fact, the movie opens with a stunning eight-minute-long tracking shot of a Chinese factory in which hundreds of similarly dressed workers toil away in perfectly symmetrical and color-coordinated rows. The movie does less well when Burtynsky gets around to articulating the "themes" of his work, which, quite frankly, come out sounding confused, contradictory and decidedly half-baked at best. But it is as a purely aesthetic experience, highlighting image and form, that "Manufactured Landscapes" resonates most. In the case of Burtynsky, perhaps, a picture really IS worth a thousand words.

This felt a little like a companion piece to Wall-E briefly in the beginning; images of overwhelming waste, even nice compacted cubes of it a la that film. Then later it sort of connected for me with a book I recently read called "Lost on Planet China" by J. Maarten Troost, although that book wants to be a comedic monologue more than a travelogue/social commentary. This film is humorless. Which is fine, but the notion that it is not a polemic, or even the photos alone are not political, is quite unfair, even if I do tend to lean the same way as the filmmaker's viewpoint. I understand that some people feel China is one huge Pittsburgh/Sheffield and that "we" are defiling our Mother Earth. I'm not entirely sure I buy that though. I'm always a little suspicious of "the old ways are best" thinking. I'm generally pretty happy with increasing life-spans, and I know that change comes with costs. Ideally you minimize the damage, but I wondered how these filmmakers would depict the birth of a child. Notice the woman's body beforehand, but now in manufacturing a child, look at the gross distension of the innards, and once the child is finally delivered, observe the impact on the once-vibrant young couple as they struggle through endless hours of sleeplessness and toil with the mound of waste produced by just one child. For some reason, I also expected the photography to be more artistic, a la "The War Photographer" (a film that I would recommend if you liked this one, or even if you just finished this one). I liked one of the Chinese people, examining a picture of him and remarking how the scale of the shot was so large that there was no detail. Nothing intimate. Anyways, an interesting albeit strongly biased view of China...just the number of women workers in different positions was fascinating. Including the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with the either attractive or repelling (or both for me?) Diana Lu, extravagant real estate agent, was kind of weird to me. Especially when contrasted with omitting the stonecutter, who was in the deleted scenes, well all choices are loaded. I'll look for the photography book at the library, some of those shots with a green oval inside a strip mining pit show briefly in the film I wanted to understand more. I assume enhanced via filters/processing. Also the Bangladesh ship graveyard...while maybe meant to be a cautionary scaring about our wasteful ways was nonetheless compelling, like having a ringside seat to the La Brea Tar Pits back when the dinosaurs were laying down for extinction. The legacy of China's rapid growth will be understood long after I am gone, and I'm not so sure that Eve and Wall-E will be weeping over the Great Wall crumbled down to build our great-great-great automaton grandchildren.

I love pollution, and polluting things on purpose. There's nothing more wonderful than seeing the silhouette of a smokestack at sunset, or the smell of coal, or the sound of heavy manufacturing. I was really hoping that this would be in favor of pollution, and ended up really disappointed. As usual, it's subtle but still typical anti-pollution propaganda, environmental extremism at one of its lowest points. I'm sure my review will be voted down by countless people, especially with my point of view on pollution, but I've never cared about the planet and I would at least like some free speech on the matter. As I should have expected, it had the typical enviro-message of alarmists everywhere: "the planet is certainly doomed and it's all your fault unless you help get rid of pollution". Typical. My advice (if you still want it), if you want to be a smart person, whether you're against pollution or not, watch A Plague on Our Children, Gasland, Beyond Pollution and Lois Gibbs: the Love Canal. Afterwards, watch The Great Global Warming Swindle, Mine Your Own Business: the Dark Side of Environmentalism, Not Evil Just Wrong and Fracknation. It's the best way to see points of view from both environmentalists and eco-sinners with the least amount of biased information. Don't watch this, it's just a load of hippie extremism.

This is the most confronting documentary I have ever seen. It was a simple and breathtaking view of a beautiful idea. Based on photographs of the hidden industrial landscapes centred around the modern industrial growth of China, Edward Burtynsky brings to life confronting issues that we so easily chose to ignore. Taking no political sides, this movie is a neutral moving picture of realities that our western societies chooses not to educate us about - the by-products of economical growth, the externalities paid by citizens of the lesser-developed communities, the source of our comforts and the wastes of our consumer lifestyles. Amazing, heart-breaking, impossible to ignore. This is a challenging journey but one worth taking - please stop staying ignorant and at least see these photographs of truth without feeling any pressure to take a standing to these issues. 10/10 definitely!

I had nowhere to go. I was on a flight to Vancouver. I would probably have missed this film if I hadn't chosen Air Canada. Watched on a small screen in the back of the seat in front, I found this captivating and mesmerising. I did drift in a couple of places and had to skip back but I had to watch to it's end. Now I'm looking forward to the DVD release in Europe though whether I'll be quite as transfixed when I can walk out the door, is yet to be discovered! The photographic composition is stunning and the film gives so much insight and 'fills out' the story the photographs tell. Recommended (if you have time on your hands).