Eye-opening documentary Manufactured Landscapes proves photographs can be worth a thousand words
Director Jennifer Baichwal explains how her nearly dialogue-free film can inspire change
Jennifer Baichwal's 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes captures the effect of large-scale human activity through the extraordinary lens of photographer Edward Burtynsky. There is almost no dialogue. Instead, Baichwal lets Burtynsky's images — from a factory in China that employs some 23,000 people to world's largest dam — speak for themselves.
The film is the subject of this weekend's episode of The Filmmakers, which — among other things — features an interview with both Baichwal and Burtynsky.
"When you allow people to witness places where they can be [and] where they can actually feel what this place is, that can lead to a shift in consciousness, which I think is the beginning of change," Baichwal says in the above tease of the episode. "And one of the things that surprised us about Manufactured Landscapes is that it struck this chord with so many people because of the fact that it was not overtly activist, political or didactic."
You can witness these places yourself when Manufactured Landscapes airs after The Filmmakers on Saturday.
The Filmmakers airs this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. (9 NT) on CBC Television, or stream it at cbc.ca/watch. After the episode, stick around to see this week's feature presentation, Manufactured Landscapes.