Burtynsky Vs. the world
Documentary examines the work of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky
EVAN JOHNSON STAFF
Manufactured Landscapes, a new documentary directed by Jennifer Baichwal that takes as its inspiration and focus the work of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, opens with an extraordinary eight-or-so minute tracking-shot along a seemingly interminable Chinese manufacturing plant, passing by scores of assembly line labourers toiling over an assortment of specialized tasks. They’re no doubt constructing some sort of useful household trinket that I’ll shortly be able to take totally for granted.
Though Manufactured Landscapes is not particularly scathing, angry, or polemical as documentaries go, it does have a clearly defined purpose — apart from simply being beautiful, which it certainly is — namely, to bring to our attention the actual costs, both human and environmental, of the large-scale manufacturing and excavation operations that make the world economy go round.
The key to the film’s success, both esthetically and politically, is that it appears to barely take a stance on the devastation it portrays, choosing instead to draw the viewer in with striking images. In this, the film is quite in line with the ethos of Burtynsky’s photography, the beauty of which, instead of directly soliciting outrage, gently encourages one to reflect upon one’s own complicity in the various processes at work in its subjects.
Most of the film takes place in China, where Burtynsky, sporting a trusty North Face windbreaker and accompanied by a small team of assistants and translators, works his way through refuse heaps (often consisting of my own former, heavymetal- laden computer parts), black and barren steel fields, otherworldly shipyards strewn with ruddy, jagged protrusions (which, as alien landscapes go, are way, way cooler than anything
Manufactured Landscapes
Directed by: Jennifer Baichwal
Opening December 8
♥♥♥♥ out of 5
George Lucas and his dullard production designers have ever cooked up), and most colossally, the Three Gorges Dam.
Said dam, currently in year 12 of its projected 16-year construction, spans the Yangtze River and will require the displacement of almost two million people, some of whom, in a rather existential twist, are being paid to demolish their own neighbourhoods. The demolished cities look rather wartorn, though in filming the labourers hard at work amongst the rubble, Baichwal is always tender without being cloying.
Despite the ever-presence of Burtynsky’s images, the man himself isn’t given all that much screen-time, though some excerpts from a lecture of his are interspersed throughout. The music, to the extent that I can recall it, consists of non-obtrusive, melancholy ambience. The cinematography by Peter Mettler, though of course not as striking as Burtynsky’s work, is admirable and, for the most part, down to earth.
Occasionally the film simply veers into slideshow territory, choosing to let Burtynsky’s stunning still photographs take precedence over moving images. It’s not a particularly cinematic approach, but it’s effective and rather enjoyable, mainly because Burtynsky is such a staggeringly great photographer: in even the busiest vistas, full of the most frantic and ornate industrial appendages, he manages to find just the right focal point to lend everything an overarching visual coherence. Baichwal does occasionally zoom in on his photographs, a technique which allows the viewer to marvel at both the enormous detail and scope of the images and the impressive mega-pixelage of Burtynsky’s camera. If, like me, you’ve never seen any of Burtynsky’s work in a proper exhibition (as opposed to an improper exhibition, like looking at photos on his website while sitting at home, listening to Weird Al and eating Cheetos — typical Friday night, that) then Manufactured Landscapes is a truly excellent opportunity to get a good first look. Do it!
Manufactured Landscapes opens Dec. 8 at Globe Theatres.
