If there is a climax to Manufactured Landscapes, it is the moment when Edward Burtynsky, the photographer and the ostensible subject of the documentary, explains (however weakly) his reasons for not politicizing his photography. Visual information, pure, noble, and free of bias—I felt the audience around me leap into a hushed rebuke.
Though I’ve never been the subject of a documentary, I’ve felt and have been subject to this disappointment. But I understand it better now, the production of information assemblies not in service of an agenda or argument but simply to provide reportage on the human condition.
Also, it’s worth seeing just for the TSM Smart Breaker sequence. Seriously.