Manufactured Landscapes last night at Far Out East Cinema

Jen and I went to see the movie Manufactured Landscapes at Far Out East Cinema last night. Far Out east Cinema is a local cinema club that shows movies that typically would not make the big screen in most cities.

Manufactured Landscapes is a documentary that follows Edward Burtynsky, a Canadian landscape photographer thru China. It was an eye opener to see how China does things on such a grand scale. The movie opened with a tracking scene of a large manufacturing plant where everyday appliances like irons or blenders are made. Not a noise to be heard with people doing manual repetitive motions all day long with the speed of a finely tuned machine. The whole work floor was so large that when they took a photo from one end to the other you were not able to see the far end of the building.

The movie focused on how industries in China are changing the landscapes (and people) permanently. In one segment they showed a town that processes e-waste and how they are contaminating their town by being exposed to heavy metals while salvaging metals from used electronic equipment. The villagers spent all day pounding the components to pieces to make a living.

Another scene showed a massive coal processing center where coal piles look like small mountains. Clouds of coal dust filled the air like fog rolling across the land. Ships filled the harbour waiting to be filled.

A beach was scattered with old cargo ships and oil tankers which were being dismantled and salvaged for their tons of metal. Oil laid everywhere across miles of beach as some of these tankers still had sludge and residue left in the ships. In many scenes, people worked in filth and without the safety equipment we take for granted.

The final segment looked into the 3 Gorges dam project. This dam will flood so much land that they have had to relocate complete cities. Over 1.1 million people have had to move. The average worker on the project is being paid 20-30 Yuan per day. Doing my math, that’s about $3.50 per day. The cities are completely flattened to rubble and will no longer show on the maps of the world. All of this because of the hydro-electric capabilities of the dam will help fill the ever-increasing demand for electricity in China.

The movie didn’t contain a lot of dialog, but spoke thru its images. The life lived by most people in China is difficult to understand from a North American perspective. Things like a bicycle as the primary means of transportation, or a community kitchen in the middle of a housing complex in a city is a complete contrast to the possessions we own and the sprawling properties we have here in Canada.

Watching the movie was an investment in understanding as it helps me to better know the world where my child is from. As they flashed faces of all the workers in the factories I wondered if one of them was my child’s mother, or the mother of another child I may know. It’s a question that will go without an answer. I thought to myself again that taking that child from her homeland and the difficult work life and pollution that she would have to life thru would be best for her, but are we really sure? Thru all the hardships that the movie showed, it also showed a lot of happy people smiling and enjoying the companionship of friends and the life they have built for themselves in such a far off land.