Manufactured Landscapes

Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary by director Jennifer Baichwal, follows Edward Burtynsky to China, as he captures the effects of the country’s massive industrial revolution. I was already familiar with Ed Burtynsky's work and had often seen his prints hung throughout his photo lab Toronto Image Works while I worked in Toronto. Normally I'm not a fan of landscape photography but the scope of his work spoke to my interest in globalization and its effects on the environment. I was really looking forward to seeing this documentary but was ultimately disappointed. My expectation when watching a documentary about a photographer is to gain insight into their thought process either by hearing their commentary with particular photographs or seeing how they work with their chosen subject. Here, however, the director just tries to create a cinematic equivalent of Burtynsky's still images rather than a documentary on the artistic process of Burtynsky himself. So the end result is a film that would be better as a coffee table book.