Burtynsky travels the world observing and capturing images of the way humanity has changed our landscape. From assembly-line factories and shipyards to strip mines and dam projects, his cameras show us the world we are creating around us. And even though what he's photographing isn't always very pretty, he somehow makes it lovely to look at, including mountains of recycled waste and demolished cities. And the biggest project of all, China's Three Gorges Dam, is so huge that it has affected the earth's rotation.

Filmmaker Baichwal has made a post-modern doc here, never offering a simple right or wrong to what we see; she's just helping us look through Burtynsky's eyes to find beauty in what we think of as ugliness. And it's the sheer scale that's most impressive, starting with the mind-bending opening shot, which tracks through a Chinese assembly line that's far beyond anything we could ever imagine. As we see these people working in massive manufacturing cities, we begin to feel how disconnected we are from where our stuff is made.

The film's main location is China, and a central focus is how raw materials are sent there from all over the world, formed into products that are shipped back out to those countries, then eventually they make their way back to China as waste. In other words, China provides labour for all of us, and then either recycles what we don't want or turns it into landfill. This cycle is repeated in other parts of the world as well, and the film traces this story with remarkable clarity through pristine film footage and Burtynsky's striking photos.

With minimal narration from Burtynsky, this sharply well-edited documentary flows elegantly through its series of clips, stills, snippets of conversation and an evocative ambient sound mix. It gently examines how oil is the building block of the last century, and how we're running out of it (a witty moment takes place at a Chinese coal field officials don't want photographed because it's so ugly; Burtynsky of course makes it look gorgeous). Without passing judgment, the film presents the fact that we are changing earth's air, water and land. And we can't go back now.