"Manufactured Landscapes"
Makeda55 and I went to see the San Francisco premiere last night of a film called "Manufactured Landscapes" (dir: Jennifer Baichwal), which documents the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. Makeda writes about it here.
You can see a trailer for the film here.
Burtynsky describes the film as "almost a meditation, somewhere in the spectrum between 'Koyaanisqatsi' and Werner Herzog's 'Lessons of Darkness' (about the oil fires in Kuwait post Gulf-War-I)".
It also reminded me in many ways of the film "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time". In both films the works of still photographers are documented in a medium of movement, their captured moments frequently given a richer and more explicit broader context by the film. There is the beauty and sense of awe (in Burtynsky both in its positive and negative aspects, sometimes simultaneously) in the "manufactured landscapes" each captures - Goldsworthy in images of his own manufacture, and Burtynsky in the large-scale human endeavors of others.
Some ways the film is able to provide a richness, context, and perspective that cannot be so easily presented by the photographer alone. (Not to diminish the talents of the photographer, his work is absolutely stunning.) For example, by showing the micro-scale temporal effects of endless repetitive tasks -- such as the flying fingers of Chinese "light-manufacturing" assembly line workers. One shot of a pair of woman's hands testing tiny "steamer" nozzles piece-by-piece at blinding speed by flipping each piece from one handful, inserting into the nozzle, testing the spray, and flipping into the other hand or a reject pile. Another doing an incredibly intricate series of wire wraps and assembly for a switch at amazing speed -- she's been doing the same piece of assembly work for six years and speaks with some pride of being able to do 400 pieces a day without overtime. While it's amazing to watch the dexterity of the workers, and to understand that this is at least a "clean" job that provides "safe" and steady work and "decent pay" and probably a much better option than might have otherwise been available, it's disheartening seeing humans reduced to being what is essentially a cheap robot. Likewise, the image of humans being reduced to social insects like ants or bees frequently comes to mind while watching cities being disassembled, scrap metal being sorted from huge heaps, and the humans being generally dwarfed by the scale of the process.
Another way the film is able to capture the temporal themes not so available to the still photographer is through the juxtaposition of the ship-building that allows for this level of globalization with the ship-breaking (disassembly) at the other end of the line. Likewise the cycle of household steam-iron manufacture at one end, with sifting through scrap metal dead irons from a rubbish heap at the other end.
I've always known in the abstract, with some occasional local glimpses, that the current model of capitalism based on encouraged excessive consumption and planned obsolescence only worked because of the externalization of costs, but it is just staggering to actually *see* the scale and scope of what those externalized costs are. It really makes you think twice about buying any sort of disposable or cheaply made product, and to think about the wider implications of your unconscious daily actions.
What's interesting is that this is not a polemical work, but an observation. Of course, the artist has his opinions (which he shared during the Q&A) and the choice of what is shown and not shown creates a perspective, but mostly it is simply observed without comment. But definitely thought-provoking. I got the impression that the director of the film (Jennifer Baichwal) was also at the showing, but unfortunately we did not get a chance to hear from her. The film director and director of photography did an amazing job of capturing Burtynsky's work and perspective.
Note that not all of the film is of China, nor is the film "about" China. For example, the incredible ship-breaking scenes are set on the coast of Bangladesh. There are other small sections in the US and Canada. China currently provides the grandest scale canvas for this artist to work because of the sheer magnitude and scope of human transformation, and because of the massively accelerated rate of change.
The film is playing also at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It's only at the Lumiere for a week, and I suspect it will drop from view all too quickly, being replaced by the usual summer special-effects extravaganzas. See it now, while it's still in the theatres. It's well worth seeing on the big screen.
See it. Now.
You can see a trailer for the film here.
Click to viewBurtynsky describes the film as "almost a meditation, somewhere in the spectrum between 'Koyaanisqatsi' and Werner Herzog's 'Lessons of Darkness' (about the oil fires in Kuwait post Gulf-War-I)".
It also reminded me in many ways of the film "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time". In both films the works of still photographers are documented in a medium of movement, their captured moments frequently given a richer and more explicit broader context by the film. There is the beauty and sense of awe (in Burtynsky both in its positive and negative aspects, sometimes simultaneously) in the "manufactured landscapes" each captures - Goldsworthy in images of his own manufacture, and Burtynsky in the large-scale human endeavors of others.
Some ways the film is able to provide a richness, context, and perspective that cannot be so easily presented by the photographer alone. (Not to diminish the talents of the photographer, his work is absolutely stunning.) For example, by showing the micro-scale temporal effects of endless repetitive tasks -- such as the flying fingers of Chinese "light-manufacturing" assembly line workers. One shot of a pair of woman's hands testing tiny "steamer" nozzles piece-by-piece at blinding speed by flipping each piece from one handful, inserting into the nozzle, testing the spray, and flipping into the other hand or a reject pile. Another doing an incredibly intricate series of wire wraps and assembly for a switch at amazing speed -- she's been doing the same piece of assembly work for six years and speaks with some pride of being able to do 400 pieces a day without overtime. While it's amazing to watch the dexterity of the workers, and to understand that this is at least a "clean" job that provides "safe" and steady work and "decent pay" and probably a much better option than might have otherwise been available, it's disheartening seeing humans reduced to being what is essentially a cheap robot. Likewise, the image of humans being reduced to social insects like ants or bees frequently comes to mind while watching cities being disassembled, scrap metal being sorted from huge heaps, and the humans being generally dwarfed by the scale of the process.
Another way the film is able to capture the temporal themes not so available to the still photographer is through the juxtaposition of the ship-building that allows for this level of globalization with the ship-breaking (disassembly) at the other end of the line. Likewise the cycle of household steam-iron manufacture at one end, with sifting through scrap metal dead irons from a rubbish heap at the other end.
I've always known in the abstract, with some occasional local glimpses, that the current model of capitalism based on encouraged excessive consumption and planned obsolescence only worked because of the externalization of costs, but it is just staggering to actually *see* the scale and scope of what those externalized costs are. It really makes you think twice about buying any sort of disposable or cheaply made product, and to think about the wider implications of your unconscious daily actions.
What's interesting is that this is not a polemical work, but an observation. Of course, the artist has his opinions (which he shared during the Q&A) and the choice of what is shown and not shown creates a perspective, but mostly it is simply observed without comment. But definitely thought-provoking. I got the impression that the director of the film (Jennifer Baichwal) was also at the showing, but unfortunately we did not get a chance to hear from her. The film director and director of photography did an amazing job of capturing Burtynsky's work and perspective.
Note that not all of the film is of China, nor is the film "about" China. For example, the incredible ship-breaking scenes are set on the coast of Bangladesh. There are other small sections in the US and Canada. China currently provides the grandest scale canvas for this artist to work because of the sheer magnitude and scope of human transformation, and because of the massively accelerated rate of change.
The film is playing also at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It's only at the Lumiere for a week, and I suspect it will drop from view all too quickly, being replaced by the usual summer special-effects extravaganzas. See it now, while it's still in the theatres. It's well worth seeing on the big screen.
See it. Now.