Last night, because I am an old man and do not wish to see Death of a President at 10PM, Anne-Marie and I decided to hit up some artsy flick at the Bytowne Cinema. It was called Manufactured Landscapes, which looked at Edward Burtynsky‘s visit to China to photograph the Three Gorges dam.
While waiting for Anne-Marie, I stumbled into this great bookstore right next to the Bytowne Cinema and found Pierre Trudeau’s Memoirs for $7. You can’t go wrong. I wonder what revealing stories I will stumble upon there? Hey, while we’re on the subject of books, I’m currently in the middle of a slew of them. Reading bits here and there. I am reading Ian Fleming’s For Your Eyes Only which has a bunch of James Bond short stories, one of which has Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang travelling from Montreal to Ottawa! I was plesantly surprised! Why don’t we ever see that trek in the films?
The other book I’m reading (well, other than Casino Royale which I have lost) is Magical Mystery Tours by Tony Bramwell. I received this from my parents last year at Christmas and I figured I should actually get around to reading it before a new Christmas is upon us! It follows childhood friend of the Beatles, Tony Bramwell around on his life with the Beatles. It’s an alright read so far…nothing out of this world exciting, but it is pretty cool to see the ‘inside scoop’ on some stories about the Fab Four. I think it will get better as I get more into it, as it’s mainly focussing on their life growing up in Liverpool.
Back to the movie…the Bytowne Cinema is THE place to catch the independent films out there that aren’t shown in the mega-halls of cinema. Anne-Marie, Krista, Amy and Vero showed up to settle down in their seats and take the movie in. Please keep in mind that I have no idea who this photographer is or what this movie is really going to be about. Perhaps my photographer mates in life – Uncle Greg and Gary, Joe, or even Mike may know who Edward Burtynsky is, but I sure do not.
The movie starts off with a camera panning industrial workstations in a warehouse in China. This goes on for 10 minutes. All silence. Then it pans outward to show the scale of what they just panned through – kilometres of workstations were workers sit and assemble items that we take for granted, like your thermostat. There is no talking, no laughing, no getting up for a break.
Fast forward to the villages containing ‘e-waste’ (which I must assume stands for electronic waste) where landfills of electronics are dumped and people scavenge them for salveable materials. We’re talking landfills of transistors, and computer motherboards, and old telephones, all separated out to re-use. China takes our resources, forms something out of them, ships it back to us, we use it, then when it gets thrown out, it returns to China to be recycled for new items for us to use. Insane.
Let’s fast forward to the Three Gorges Dam (which I never knew anything about until now). Taken from Wikipedia: “It will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, more than five times the size of the Hoover Dam. The reservoir began filling on June 1, 2003, and will occupy the present position of the scenic Three Gorges area, between the cities of Yichang, Hubei; and Fuling, Chongqing. Structural work was finished on May 20, 2006, nine months ahead of schedule. However, several generators still have to be installed and the dam is not expected to become fully operational until 2009.”
Now, what’s the reason for this dam? Energy! China has become this nation where they want to be the frontrunners in the industrialized world. Well, they may be achieving it, but at what cost? The cities that will be filled in with water are taken apart – brick by brick. Villagers are paid to take apart their own villages. That is insane. The imagery presented here was awesome, not so much a good thing, but awesome in the scope of what they are doing to their land.
The film is interspersed with lanscape photographs taken by the Mr. Burtynsky which create a serene picture of industrialized China. I can’t remember if he mentioned in the movie or if I dreamt the word up, but it is like looking at ‘Industrial Nature’ when you look at his photographs. Very amazing work actually. Google up some images and you’ll see what I mean. How there is a different form of nature nowadays…industrial nature.
Let’s be clear on something…Edward Burtynsky isn’t trying to relay a message on whether the industrialized nation is a good or bad thing. He just wants to demonstrate that it’s there and that people can form their own opinions.
Thought provoking, surreal, and beautiful, this movie allows you time to think on the issues. There isn’t much dialogue, the random interview here and there. It’s more about the images portrayed.