Jennifer Baichwal's cameras follow Edward Burtynsky (1955- ) as he visits what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, and a place in Bangladesh where ships are taken apart for recycling. In China, workers gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world's fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side.

Edward Burtynsky does not point and click. He researches, conducts interviews, observes and then waits for the perfect moment. As a result, his photographs transmit enormous amounts of information and emotional power. And despite their ugly subject matter — the after effects of mass-manufacturing and industrialized culture — they are breathtakingly beautiful. As director Jennifer Baichwal follows Burtynsky through industrialized China and to a Bangladeshi oil-processing plant, she demonstrates her own steady hand, precise eye and substantial patience. Her magnificent scans of Burtynsky's photos reveal the rich detail, remarkable depth of field and absolutely stunning color that are found in every print. On its surface, Manufactured Landscapes is an appeal for environmental sanity. But it also offers an examination of the possibility of storytelling through the still image, reminding us of the visceral, aching impact a great picture can have. (JS)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832903/