Jennifer Baichwal’s Landscapes
Angela Baldassarre

Recently, internationally renowned Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky traveled through China photographing the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. The Three Gorges Dam, factory floors a kilometre long and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai’s urban renewal were subjects for his lens. Following right behind him was Montreal-born documentary filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal and her motion picture camera. The result is the stunning “Manufactured Landscapes.”

One of my personal favourite Canadian directors, Baichwal garnered international attention with her first feature film, “Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles,” which won an Emmy in 1999, followed by “The Holier it Gets,” a movie she shot about traveling to the Ganges river with her father’s ashes. She also profiled Appalachian photographer Shelby Lee Adams in the documentary “The True Meaning of Pictures,” which won a Gemini Award in 2003.

I talked to Jennifer Baichwal about “Manufactured Landscapes.”

How did this project come about?

“Daniel Iron, a friend and colleague I have worked with since ‘Let it Come Down,” told me Jeff Powis had been following Edward Burtynsky around for five years with a Mini DV camcorder, and Jeff asked Daniel if he knew someone who could shape the material into a film. I had been following Ed’s work for about 10 years, but after I went through about 80 hours of the footage I realized that although I could include some of the shot material, I would have to film myself if we were going to make a documentary about Ed’s work. About four months later we were in China for three weeks, witnessing that country’s massive industrial revolution and recording Ed making photographs about it.”

You already did a documentary about a photographer, Shelby Lee Adams. How would this differ?

“The Shelby film was very much a philosophical investigation into issues of representation in documentary photography (and by extension, documentary film). I could have done the same thing here, but I didn’t want to. What compelled me about Ed’s photographs is that they are intentionally ambiguous — you are drawn to the way the image is presented and then realize you are looking at garbage or a scarred landscape. And that ambiguity is fruitful because the photographs are not didactic — they shift consciousness indirectly.”

How do you manage to convey the beauty of photography through your films?

“I spent a lot of time talking with Peter Mettler, my cinematographer and collaborator, about how to best represent the photographs in the film. It isn’t easy representing one medium in another and I wanted to recreate the visceral experience of your eye moving across a photograph — starting with the wide view, then moving in closer to see myriad details. We also wanted to represent in time the scale you see recorded in the photographs: hence the opening dolly shot of a factory floor, which goes on for some time.”

“What was the most complicated aspect of working with Burtynsky during the making of this film?

“There are all kinds of technical difficulties involved with representing photographs in film — making sure the colour is right, image stability on motion, sequencing, etc. That was complicated. But shooting in China was also difficult — it is still a closed place and we had to constantly negotiate wherever we were trying to film. It was particularly difficult to talk to people — whenever we tried to interview someone, our handlers became agitated.”

What impressed you the most about China?

“China is an extraordinary country. The push to become the manufacturers of the world has obviously enriched the economy but at great environmental cost. It was important to me to have China as an archetype here, and to express in the film all our implication in this industrial revolution — we are fuelling it every time we buy something or throw something away. So to witness these places that we are all responsible for yet never get to see was important to me.”

What was the most difficult part about making this film?

“All films are a challenge to make.”

What, if anything, did you learn from making “Manufactured Landscapes”?

“I can no longer engage in unconscious acts of consumption and waste. I can’t buy something without looking to see where it is made, and I can’t throw something away without thinking of the recycling yard, halfway across the world, that thing is going to end up in.”

What are you working on next?

“A film called ‘Act of God,’ which is about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning.”

“Manufactured Landscapes” opens in local theatres on September 29.