manufactured landscapes...

This weekend up at UVIC's CINECENTA, there showing Manufactured Landscapes directed by Jennifer Baichwal who grew up in Victoria, it's an unconventional documentary filled with the incredible photography of Edward Burtynsky. It is a collision of art and environment in which the viewer is left to assess the damage...

“FOUR STARS! Jennifer Baichwal’s marvellous, unconventional documentary concerns Toronto-based photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose monolithically scaled portraits of industrial decay have won him an international reputation. With its impassive camerawork and smooth, imperceptible editing, Manufactured Landscapes extends Burtynsky’s consciousness into the cinematic arena. It strives to place an onus of interpretation — and, by extension, responsibility — on its audience. Though its vistas may look alien, this urgent, quietly damning film never lets us forget that we, by dint of our comfy environs, are their creators.” –eye Weekly

“As anyone who's seen Baichwal's previous work would expect, the film is far more than a straightforward portrait of an artist. Indeed, Manufactured Landscapes is as much about the aesthetic, social and spiritual dimensions of industrialization and globalization as it is about Burtynsky and his work. Burtynsky's interest in humanity's impact on nature led to frequent visits to China, where most of the world's raw materials - and much of its waste - wind up. The film follows Burtynsky's trips to China and a related trip to Bangladesh… Beautifully shot and edited, and conceived with an exhaustive awareness of the repercussions of our mania to control and repackage our environment, Manufactured Landscapes is a truly unsettling look at contemporary existence.” –Toronto International Film Festival

“Art and environmentalism collide in Manufactured Landscapes, with results that are more fascinating for their ambiguity. An easy sell to art lovers, it also offers a new tangent for discussions encouraged by An Inconvenient Truth. It appeals to two niches that don't always overlap. The result is a highly unusual viewing experience that stimulates the senses and the conscience simultaneously. Burtynsky may be reluctant to pin his images down by attaching morals to them, but viewers will be unable to ignore the troubling questions they present.” --Hollywood Reporter