Manufactured Landscapes | Blu-ray Review

Edward Burtynsky has for decades been lensing large scale photographs that document the often devastating visual impact of humans on our environment en masse. The wide angle landscapes he frames are almost always the corollary conclusion of man’s need and abuse of materials, whether a seemingly endless axis of stockpiled iron ore from Canadian mining communities or a countless assemblage of towering skyscrapers set against a meltingly hot Chinese horizon. As an artist who’s body of work stands as an artifact invoking environmentalism, Burtynsky does not use his alien panoramas explicitly for political intrigue. Instead, placed cleanly in galleries around the globe, his massive photographs are taken in on their own visual merits without forced intention, quietly conveying that we are in fact trashing our own planet without directly stating the obvious. A quarter of a million dollar U.S. box office take, Jennifer Baichwal’s poetic 2006 film (2007 selected Sundance entry), Manufactured Landscapes, recaps Burtynsky’s career by giving us time with many of his beautifully harrowing pieces and context to take them in with new perspective.

We begin in China. The camera dollies down what seems like an endless warehouse that must extend literally miles. Row after row of man made machinery draped with the yellow clothed bodies of hunched workers performing the same set of tasks over and over pass across the screen. It is a construction of sheer size and scale, and Baischwal punctuates it with the following shot in which Burtynsky is found elevated, photographing the workers as they evacuate the factories, pouring into the picturesquely formed man made streets in yellow droves, like constructed military outfits preparing for drills. The scene ends with Burtynsky’s actual photograph, a seemingly infinite collection of bodies walled in by endless factories, zoomed in to highlight minute detail, but slowly pulling back to reveal just how immense the scene really was. Following no real narrative to speak of, this basic structure allows us to see the situations in which many of the artist’s work took place while showing off the final products.

While we witness Burtynsky documenting the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and the resulting deconstruction of many cities along the Yangtze riverside, the picking apart of ‘e-waste’ in poor rural Chinese villages, the demolishing of oil tankers in Bangladesh and the rapid architectural development of Shanghai, Baichwal always pulls the camera back into an art gallery where Burtynsky’s pictures are being gawked at by the public at large. It’s a fascinating visual conundrum that calls into question Burtynsky’s motives while simultaneously showing that his chosen medium can bring attention to world happenings through artistic encapsulation. Allowing Burtynsky to aurally explain himself, she has taken audio (and occasionally video) from a live presentation of his work in which he speaks about why he has chosen to present is photos the way he does and of thoughts he had while lensing his pieces. His carefully presented still photographs themselves act as a meditative balancing apparatus against cinematographer Peter Mettler’s very grainy, often shaky, hand held work that makes up most of the documentary footage. Only Mettler’s stunning opening shot packs even comparable visual intrigue to the work of his subject.

Manufactured Landscapes is an enchanted layering of grotesque visual perfection, environmental concern, and the questioning of an artist’s moral duties, not only in a political sense, but of one’s authorship in documentation turned art turned different art form. As a work of cinematic non-fiction, Baichwal’s film does little but expressively highlight the life’s work of a momentous photographer who’s work is far more valuable on its own merit, but it does so with finely tuned appreciation for the involved process and pristine presentation of Edward Burtynsky.

The Disc:

Manufactured Landscapes is one of two debut Blu-ray releases from Zeitgeist Films (the other being Bill Cunningham New York), both films being pulled from the company’s rich back catalog to make some waves on the seemingly still budding HD format. Burtynsky’s awe-inspiring high resolution stills are beautifully rendered here, with finite details being highlighted throughout the film. That said, with so much of the footage in the film being visually quite rough, it makes the film an odd choice for a first film to make the format leap. Boasting a DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track, the film sounds incredibly cinematic for a doc. Atmospherics are constantly peeping through the surrounds, helping to immerse you in the massive environments of the film. The disc itself comes in a standard Blu-ray case.

Extended Scenes
Included here is a 40 minute collection of scenes with additional footage including the Shanghai house tour, a scene in a karaoke bar, a sequence in old Shanghai neighborhoods, a piece on an old stone carver and several others. The footage, while being an interesting collection of exclusions, is window-boxed and sports some shaky subtitles.

Discussion with Director Jennifer Baichwal and Photographer Edward Burtynsky
Staged in Burtynsky’s studio in Toronto, this 20 minute conversation is directed and mediated by Richard Goddard. They speak about how the project came together and the strange contention of authorship from photo to film. This also is piece is also window-boxed.

Interview with Cinematographer Peter Mettler
While this is a shorter, 5 minute piece, again being put together by Richard Goddard, it is great to hear the perspective of a documentary cinematographer, someone who rarely is given any attention whatsoever. Mettler talks about how he got involve with the project and how he developed the overall look of the film. Also window-boxed.

Theatrical Trailer
Sporting plenty of film fest ribbons and positive press quotes, the trailer is mini version of the film, with a little doc footage, a little snippet of the photographer’s presentation speech, and plenty of his gorgeous pictures. While not window-boxed, it is still only presented in 4:3, rather than widescreen like the film.

Final Thoughts:

Presenting Manufactured Landscapes as one of its first films to release on Blu-ray, Zeitgeist Films has picked a powerful one that shows just how destructive industry can be, but one that only part of the time truly shines thanks to the higher resolution. The disc does however have a great audio track and a selection of nice extras. Let’s hope the distributor continues to reissue their back catalog and release many of their future films with as much attention paid to the marvelous transfer presented here.