Watermark by Edward Burtynsky & Jennifer Baichwal

Watermark is a film collaboration between renowned Canadian stills photographer, Edward Burtynsky, and award-winning documentary film maker, Jennifer Baichwal, that explores human beings’ relationship with water. Previously, Baichwal and Burtynsky collaborated on the acclaimed 2006 documentary film, Manufactured Landscapes, that examined the impact of global industrialization.

Burtynsky’s fine art photography depicts large-scale industrial landscapes in a serene beautiful way, much like Ansel Adams‘ photography captured the majesty of the American wilderness. Burtynsky cleverly presents his images of industrialization through a non-critical lens, and the audience is left to draw their own conclusions regarding environmental impact and consequences. In Watermark much of the same technique is employed by the filmmakers and although on an intellectual level many will understand the environmental ramifications of global expansion, the film seems to hit on a more visceral level, with Burtynski’s mastery of scale and imagery to convey the sheer size of the problems before us. Watermark will give you pause for thought. –P.

The film can be streamed or downloaded through iTunes.