At the end Cinema Politica’s screening of ‘Manufactured Landscapes’ this Wednesday, I overheard the person sitting behind me tell his friend the film had been ‘beautiful; Terrifying, but beautiful’. Indeed, director Jennifer Braichwal’s 2006 documentary is a modest, quiet, yet immensely powerful reminder of the effect human industrialization is having on the earth, and on us, the architects.

‘Manufactured Landscapes’ takes the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky and unfreezes it, giving his images a third dimension, through interviews, commentary, and movement. Few words are spoken throughout the film. Braichwal and Burtynsky prefer imagery to tell the story, leaving interpretation open to the viewer. While some may say the purpose of his images is vague, Burtynsky maintains that he doesn’t wish to share his personal views on the subject matter, neither to politicize it. By omitting what he thinks people should see, he hopes viewers will discern for themselves that we are creating long term problems, environmental and more, that run deep.

The film, which Burtynsky says was primarily inspired by nature, opens with an epic, eight-minute tracking shot of production lines on a Chinese factory floor. As the camera rolls down the aisle, viewers are shown the relentlessness of the production lines, where items are assembled mostly by a steady and repetitive hand. The vastness of the space draws unlikely parallels with prairie vistas or rolling meadows—endless. The pace is deliberate, and methodical, intended to show the viewer the scale of industrial landscapes as they encroach on ‘natural’ ones.

Braichwal and Burtynsky’s travels through China take them to entire towns dedicated to recycling ‘Ewaste’, the parts left over from discarded technology. They note that the fumes from burning down the plastic and metal contaminate the local water in these communities to such an extent that fresh water has to be shipped in. A worker frankly explains in a brief interview that their job is to smash all the monitors that arrive in the town, and then to salvage the scrap metal. Fifty percent of the world’s technology is ‘recycled’ in China, largely in this way.

The pair also visit the building site of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River, at present the largest dam in the world. The building of the dam, started in 1994, was controversial due its environmental impact, not to mention the relocation of nearly one million people from the area to be flooded. Due to the demolition of the cities that previously stood along the Yangtze River, Burtynsky’s panoramas of the area look like the grounds of war. It’s later discovered that the people relocated were hired to demolish their own cities, i.e. their own homes, in an act of ‘voluntary’ violence against the self. When asked if the people relocated are happy with their new homes, a Three Gorges spokesperson simply retorts, ‘Do not ask me that question. That is not my job’.

Workers asked if they were proud to be working on such a groundbreaking project would comment that they were only a small part of a larger goal. One worker, somewhat defensively commented that he was not a part of anything, but that he was simply a worker with a job, being paid by a boss. The pattern of exploitation and danger is revisited again in a side trip to Chittagong ship breaking beach in Bangladesh, where the life expectancy is thirty. The film is by no means a absolute critique of industrialization and ‘progress’, merely an aesthetic and potent illustration of that which we are too often blind to.

‘Manufactured Landscapes’ delivers these telling insights at a slow, almost hypnotic pace, allowing viewers ample time to take in the images on screen. At times, the film feels like a slide show set to situational sounds, as pictures of factory workers assembling kettles are set to the sounds of machinery, and workers talking. The modesty of this film, the conscious reserve of the narrative and the minimalism of its sounds, acts to accentuate the epic tragedy of its images.

As a photographer, Burtynsky focuses his work on the aesthetic quality of man-made landscapes, creating panoramic shots of mines and oil fields from diverse vantage points. The human aspect of these scenes is generally omitted, and the people featured in his photography are usually little more than flecks on vast horizons. Braichwal’s cinematography fills in these gaps with frequent zooming in on the individuals in shots, and scenes showing workers reactions to the photos taken of them.

A worker at Three Gorges aptly comments that it is difficult to see the details in Burtynsky’s photography. But ‘man’ is always present in our manufactured landscapes: we are the architects, the profiteers and the victims.

Taken as a whole, ‘Manufactured Landscapes’ is mesmerizing and startling, or as our friend from the screening put it, ‘terrifying, but beautiful’.

WRITTEN BY EVELYN STANLEY

Burtynsky’s photography can be found at http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/