This week I watched Manufactured Landscapes, a beautiful and thoughtful documentary film about the meaning of progress. It uses the economic boom in China over the past few decades as a metaphor for the past few hundred years of economic progress through industrialization (enjoyed mostly by Europe and the Americas, of course).
The film had gorgeous images of essentially ugly things with a clever sound track, and mostly lets you draw your own conclusions. Much more powerful than if it had been didactic. The film is anchored in the work of photographer/artist Edward Burtynsky. The editing is done by Roland Schlimme, who is also a musician and it shows. The main character is mother earth. Highly recommended.
Here is nice Ted talk Burtynysky did before he finished the film. He has a new film on the way called Watermark, with the same same filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier.