Manufactured Landscapes

I went to see this documentary at Princess Cinema here in Waterloo. In my movie review this movie gets a 9/10 (very high in my books). It was more than I expected to see. To be honest, there aren't many films which I can sit through, especially when in the theatre, but throughout this film I couldn't even blink.The impact humans have on this earth is immense. At some of the scenes I was close to vomiting... crying... and in most I was in complete awe at the force and ability we have to alter our surroundings and landscapes. As Jesse noted, even though the pictures were of such horrible things, the way in which Edward Burtynski shot them made them see so beautiful.

I was most excited about the Three Gorges Dam images. I learned about it in a geography course a couple years ago, but seeing pictures that displayed its true size was powerful. And of course all the labour that is going into building it. The amount of people who have been displaced due to the construction of the dam is six cities worth.

Edward Burtynski just presents the pictures of the impact the industrialisation has on China. Even though they he doesn't make any political statement or addresses our social conscience, the pictures do that themselves.

Manufactured Landscapes