Depicting the world through the eyes of photographer Edward Burtynsky, Canadian director Jennifer Baichwal leaves her own perspective understated. Burtynsky's large-scale pictures reflect an ambivalence towards industrial capitalism, finding beauty in its detritus side by side with horror and danger. Manufactured Landscapes follows the artist around China as he shoots factories, computer waste and the massive Three Gorges Dam construction project.
Elegantly shot on film by Peter Mettler, a director in his own right, Manufactured Landscapes matches the beauty of Burtynsky's photos and often apes their scale and angles. Its attention to visual style, rare for a contemporary documentary, pays off. Largely eschewing interviews and keeping herself entirely off-screen, Baichwal gazes at China with rapt, undisguised fascination. Her few bits of editorializing during a trip to Shanghai near the end of the film are less eloquent than her simple presentation of another artist's vision. Like some of the best recent Chinese films (Still Life, West of the Tracks), Manufactured Landscapes offers a unique perspective on the country's industrial revolution. — Steve Erickson
