Watching this in 2016 i realized that the industrious images shown in this documentary are ten years old. All the people you see have gone somewhere, developed, aged, some died. They are all shown as tiny cogs in this man-made machine that's called industrialization, mostly seen in the specific context of China, early 21st century. You see them doing monotonous work in the most efficient way, Marx' nightmare, barren landscapes ravaged by pollution, cities being destroyed for a new dam.It's a sombre portrait that doesn't forget the human factor. The shot of a lone man in a giant factory sleeping at his workbench after everybody left is typical, sad and beautiful at once. These and other images made me emotional, without being forced to feel that way.
The film tells you that the scope and character of what you are seeing is unprecedented in history. It has an eye for the innate bizarre-ity of the shapes created in industrialization, captured in beautiful photographs that regularly show up. There is commentary, yet sparsely, a loose narrative of the films' creative process and some musing about the way how we as humankind transform nature. It's an intellectual take on industrialization, instead of immediately jumping to condemnation. Pessimism still prevails though, and by witnessing what the filmmakers witnessed it's hard to disagree with them.
The music was the only thing that disrupted my attention at times. It's a dark form of Ambient that can be too present in wanting you to feel depressed about what was being shown. It's not needed, the sounds of the locations themselves are interesting enough by themselves.
The film tells you that the scope and character of what you are seeing is unprecedented in history. It has an eye for the innate bizarre-ity of the shapes created in industrialization, captured in beautiful photographs that regularly show up. There is commentary, yet sparsely, a loose narrative of the films' creative process and some musing about the way how we as humankind transform nature. It's an intellectual take on industrialization, instead of immediately jumping to condemnation. Pessimism still prevails though, and by witnessing what the filmmakers witnessed it's hard to disagree with them.
The music was the only thing that disrupted my attention at times. It's a dark form of Ambient that can be too present in wanting you to feel depressed about what was being shown. It's not needed, the sounds of the locations themselves are interesting enough by themselves.