Bob Ezrin wants you to rethink consumer culture

Canadian super-producer Bob Ezrin is well known for working with a broad spectrum of musical luminaries over the last 50 years, including Alice Cooper, Andrea Bocelli, Lou Reed, and Taylor Swift. What's less known about Ezrin is that he originally got into the music business wanting to do film scores.

"When I first started in this business, I thought I was going into the movie business," he says. "I have a particular reverence for film study, and I love it."

Ezrin is the co-producer of In the Wake of Progress, an immersive short film based on the 40 year career of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. (The other co-producer is Burtynsky himself.) The film, which looks at the effects of resource extraction around the world, made its debut last year, and is currently the centrepiece of a Burtynsky exhibition called Le paysage abstrait, on now at Montreal's Arsenal Contemporary Art gallery.

Ezrin was introduced to Burtynsky years ago through a mutual friend and quickly found they had a lot in common.

"We discovered that we were kindred spirits in the sense that we were both fascinated by technology and use of technology in art," he says.

They're also both environmentalists.

"Both of us are very concerned about consumer culture, and the processes of extraction that we're engaged in as a species," he says. "I've been very fortunate to go to some really beautiful, pristine places. Then [I] return there some years after, and find out that they're not so pristine anymore — that they've been developed or they've been mined or they've been clearcut. And I realize that this is happening on a global scale."

Burtynsky told Ezrin about a career retrospective film project he'd been working on, and asked him if he'd like to co-produce it with him. Then COVID hit, and, with the two of them both grounded in Toronto, Ezrin says it was the perfect time for them to start really digging into the idea. 

"Very quickly we developed… this immersive experience that was designed for big rooms, big venues with multiple screens and surround sound," he says. "That would take one on a journey from the beginning — from the primordial forest — into the beginning of extraction and all the way through that tentacle of human ingenuity used for extracting resources from the Earth in order to support our lifestyle. And then once people have been through that extremely emotional experience — at the very end — we give them a little light, a bit of inspiration."

While Ezrin is both a music producer and the co-producer of In the Wake of Progress, he didn't actually do the music for the film. That was done by Toronto composer Phil Strong. 

"When I came in, I said, 'I don't feel that the music is supporting the imagery.'" he says. "'And I also don't feel like the emotional arc of the piece is defined well enough by it'… We tried a couple of things, but then they said, 'Well, there was this guy who did an early version of the film with us called Phil Strong, check out this work.' So they sent me a short video with Phil's score and I thought it was brilliant."

Ezrin brought Strong back on to the project, and Strong did both the score and the sound design.

"He was totally accepting having me as his producer on the musical side of things, with completely open arms, an open heart and an open mind," he says. "It was a really great collaboration. I loved working with him. I actually fell in love with the man."

Sadly, Strong died in December of last year after a battle with a rare disease called amyloidosis. His passing came shortly after the first showing of In the Wake of Progress. Ezrin says that, in some ways, the film became a tribute to Strong in addition to a retrospective of Burtynsky's work.

"Phil Strong peddled his bicycle to work," he says. "Phil Strong lived respectfully of his environment, took only what he needed, and gave back more than he ever took. Phil Strong was the embodiment of what we hope people will evolve to become."

Ezrin says that, more than anything, he and Burtynsky hope that people walk away from In the Wake of Progress questioning their personal impact on the planet, and willing to make a change in how they live.

Edward Burtynsky: Le paysage abstrait runs until Oct.1 at the Arsenal Contemporary Art gallery (2020 Rue William) in Montreal.