Manufactured Landscapes

Dir: Jennifer Baichwal (The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia)
Documentary on the photography of Edward Burtynsky
Canada, 2006

Seen: October 9, 2006 at Varsity VIP

Reason to see: Film festival folks were earnestly raving about it, plus it's Canadian and I am on my second attempting my #7 on my 101 list: See 1 film a week in the theatre for a year. This is week 14/52.

Many thoughts ran through my head as I was watching this film, a lot were along the lines of: What are we doing to our planet? What am I seeing? What is the scale of that? I wonder if the director and the photographer have the same vision for their work?

I came into this film hearing 2 specific things: 1) its a documentary on photographer Edward Burtynsky who 2) takes beautiful pictures of industrial settings. This got me thinking as to my own idea of beauty. As I looked at the settings and photography, words that came to mind to describe would be: fascinating, eye-opening, awe-inspiring, wonderous, sharp, juxtapose, brillant. But beautiful? I would have to say I'm not sold on that definition. Many of the settings caused my heart to hurt, which I don't think I can associate with beautiful - but that is just me. This does not mean the film and the artwork isn't good - both are exceptional, thought provoking and amazing. It's out in limited release, I would highly recommend getting out to see it in the theatre if you can.

Shannon's Overall View:
I found it fascinating
I would watch it again
I'd strongly recommend it, especially for anyone who is interested in photography, the enviornment and/or international issues

No commericals
1 preview
The film started 6 minutes late (very surprizing)

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© Shannon Ridler, 2006