Chronicling Civilization’s Devastation Of Planet Earth: AU To Host Screening, Discussion Of ‘Manufactured Landscapes’ Film April 1

AURORA, Ill.---Aurora University will host a screening and discussion of “Manufactured Landscapes,” a film documenting civilization’s devastation of Earth, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1.

The program is free to the public in Perry Theatre in the Aurora Foundation Center for Community Enrichment at 1305 Kenilworth Place in Aurora.

The screening will open a series of four film presentations and faculty-led discussions sponsored by AU’s department of general education.

Carrie Morjan, assistant professor of biology, will lead the initial discussion.

”Landscapes” is director Jennifer Baichwal’s 2006 documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.

The 90-minute film follows him through China, as he shoots the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. Scenes such as immense Chinese dumping grounds, Bangladeshi shipyards, and manufacturing plants stretch across and beyond the frame.

With breathtaking sequences, such as the opening tracking shot through an almost endless factory, the filmmakers also extend the narratives of Burtynsky’s photographs, emphasizing civilization’s impact on the planet and the epicenters of industrial endeavor and the dumping grounds of its waste.

The film’s awards include Best Documentary Feature, Toronto Film Critics Association; Best Canadian Feature, Toronto Film Critics Association; Best Canadian Feature, Toronto Film Festival; and Best Documentary, Genie Awards

The film series continues with “Dr. Strangelove,” Sept. 24; “Reading Hitchcock: A Literary Approach to Reading Psycho,” Nov. 5; and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Jan. 29, 2009.

For more information, call (630) 844-5615.

(Photographs: http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=manufacturedlandscapes&)

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