Finally had a chance to see Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary on the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky declares early in the film that his goal has always been to use his photographs to document the worst of humankind's devastation of Earth. Over the curse of the movie we see him taking his large format photos of hellholes such as a ship breaking yard in Bangladesh to a huge open pit mine to a factory city in China. The film's director, Jennifer Baichwal mirrors and amplifies Burtynsky's photographic techniques with her cinematography. The opening scene is a spectacularily depressing continuous 10 minute dolly shot down the aisle of a seemingly endless soul crushing factory. The scenes that follow are relentlessly grimmer and grimmer. It's a nightmare made visible for all to see - don't expect to see Burtynsky's photos used in too many mass media reports on the environment - they're an all too real downer...

I particularly liked the fact that Burtynsky didn't exclude himself from the responsibility for all this global destruction, for example he reminded us that the silver for the photographic plates at the core of his art is mined in a horrifically toxic manner.

This is a stately, reflective film that encourages the viewer to interpret the art, and it is not a happy story that unfolds in the viewer's mind. It's a grim view of our "civilization" indeed...

7 out of 5.

Hmm. I'll have to take a look at this now. Just finished the superb Dark Days and have a few other documentaries queued up on Blockbuster but I may have to bump this one up a bit.