About the film
Unnatural Landscapes takes viewers on a journey through 32,000 hectares of marshlands in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. For over three centuries, this landscape has been protected from the tides of the Bay of Fundy — the largest in the world — by structures that made it possible to farm on drained land that had once been salt marsh.
After World War II, these structures — dykes that held back the tides and aboiteaux that allowed water to drain out from the fields — were deteriorating. In response, the Canadian government created the Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration to reconstruct or replace them, sometimes succeeding and other times creating new environmental problems.
Building on interviews with individuals who had a variety of connections with the marshlands, the film focuses on the legacy of the MMRA taking the viewer through three different landscapes that have existed since the arrival of European settlers: the original salt marsh, a second nature created by the installation of dykes and aboiteaux to drain the marshes; and a third nature formed through the introduction of tidal dams that added large headponds to the environment. By taking this journey through these different forms of nature, viewers are encouraged to reflect on what it means for a landscape to be “natural.”
