Film Review: Manufactured Landscapes

[da]

This was a fairly good documentary about stunning art. The film-makers followed Edward Burtynsky on photo-shoots in a Chinese factory, a Chinese ship-building yard, a Bangladesh ship-breaking yard, various mining sites, and back to China for the Three Gorges Dam and Shanghai urban-renewal. (None explicitly about the Sudbury mines; I'd love to know the story of the photo above. It's my favourite of his photos).

Mr. Burtynski seems considerably less crazy than, say, Christo; and the pieces of the movie overlaid with his spoken message helped more than it grated. The music, however, tended to put me to sleep- better if they'd used more of Burtynski's lecture-circuit text to tell us more about his history and vision. (He described his work as essentially showing us some of the effects humans are having on the environment; without pointing fingers or making value judgements that would turn off some of his target audience. I'm not completely certain that's the right approach, values wise, but it makes for some really strong artistic work.)

One neat section was a slow zoom from a collection of huge earth-movers on a mining site, outward until we saw the outline of what seemed to be a huge crater of a mine, the earth-movers barely visible. Staggering perspectives, all throughout. In a way, it reminded me (in a good way) of George Lucas's vision for the original Star Wars- such as the Star Destroyer opening scene and the trash-compactor. Here, we've got real life echoing those unbelievable perspectives from sci-fi.

Here's his website, which has a short clip from the film; the "video" section has other clips that aren't from the film, including a neat set on the ship-breakers.

I'm not certain whether or not to recommend this film; if you're impressed by his work, I think it's best seen in large-format, so either on the big screen (closes tomorrow at the Princess) or perhaps on a big-ass home-projector.

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the movie. :) You can tell people that I recommend it!

[bats22.livejournal.com]

In case you wanted to read more about shipbreaking, most of what I know comes from an Atlantic article by William Langewiesche:

http://www.wesjones.com/shipbreakers.htm

[catbear.livejournal.com]

We were there Monday night. Did I totally space and not see you, or were y'all going totally incognito?

Actually, we were among the first to arrive, sat in front, and stayed until after the credits rolled.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

There is supposed to be some of his work hanging in the gallery downstairs at the Princess Twin, I think until the end of the month.

I found it curious that Burtynsky was filmed saying he wanted to present his work without judgement while the filmmaker came down pretty heavily with (her own?) judgement. Was it my imagination, or did everyone who looked closely at his photographs in the galleries (few seemed to) come away with a guilty expression?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for digging that up. I've bookmarked it for reading later!

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Well, bats22 and I showed up just before the previews, sat half way back, were engrossed in conversation, and left in the middle of the credits, so I suppose it's understandable that you didn't see us and vice-versa. :)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Hm, I didn't notice the guilty expressions. I did certainly notice a bit of slant by the filmmaker.

I hope he gets another chance to have a documentary made about him, eventually.

[bats22.livejournal.com]

Heh. Does anyone else find this amusingly ironic?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=2129549&sourceid=0100000030660805302498

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

snap.