Impressive, magnificent, critical: the esthetics and ethics of the transformation of the earth’s water system.

Picture gallery

Water is the basis of life, having formed the earth for millions of years. For the past two thousand years, humans have been affecting that system, especially since industrialization – often with negative results. Photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal go in search of ancient witnesses to this change, seeking systems used for years and those that have just been established, capturing it all in impressive images enhanced by little commentary. A mystical touch here and there doesn’t quite fit.

Those familiar with Edward Burtynsky’s extreme format photography will discover his typical characteristics in this film: fixed images with no people in them, or humans as “ants”. This film therefore has the same problem as Manufactured Landscapes, the movie about his meta photos: they don’t jibe with the way we watch movies. Burtynsky’s images just seem like large format photographs or a kind of still life on film, which doesn’t make for real storytelling. It’s more like reporting, which especially holds true for the scenes of the enormous construction site for the world’s largest dam in China.