Hot Docs 2008

This Genie and Toronto International Film Festival award winner explores the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, who shoots gorgeous pictures of industrial wastelands and exploited workers. Refusing to be overtly political, Burtynsky relentlessly pursues a working methodology that allows him access to restricted, often devastated areas: quarries, factories, dumping grounds and mines. By making his photographs huge and beautiful, he mollifies authorities that can limit where he shoots while confronting rich art aficionados with the decayed fruit of society's labours. Baichwal and cinematographer Peter Mettler accompanied Burtynsky on a trip to the Three Gorges Dam, which is forcing the relocation of millions of Chinese from their ancestral homes, and Shanghai, where urban renewal is ripping apart the fabric that bound a city together for generations. Thoughtful and provocative, Baichwal's film captures the complexity of Burtynsky's artistic practice. Manufactured Landscapes is "an extraordinarily haunting, beautiful, insightful and thought-provoking film," says Al Gore.