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The Burning Season
« Director's reflections on final cut of the documentary

June 16, 2008

After a year and a half of production across four continents, the new feature documentary 'The Burning Season' is complete and ready to launch.

The film follows young Australian entrepreneur, Dorjee Sun, as he goes on a mission to stop one of the great environmental catastrophes of our time. Every hour, rainforest areas equivalent to 300 football fields are cut down and burnt to clear land for crops such as palm oil. This deforestation is not only threatening the orangutan with extinction, it also contributes 20% of global carbon emissions. Can Dorjee pull off a deal that offers new hope to the remaining forests of the world and the global climate?

The film is narrated by leading Australian actor HUGH JACKMAN (X-Men, Wolverine, Australia).

Hugh Jackman says of the film: "Every year, there is one outstanding documentary that you cannot miss...That people will talk about because of its significance to the planet's future...This coming year, 'The Burning Season' is that documentary."

The documentary premieres tonight (Monday 16 June 2008) at a special parliamentary screening in Canberra hosted by the Minister of Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Hon PETER GARRETT. The new web site went live today at www.theburningseasonmovie.com.
The TV version will be screened later in 2008 by broadcast partners ABC (Australia), BBC (UK), CBC (Canada) and distributed worldwide by National Geographic International. The project includes a feature length documentary, a one-hour television program, a DVD and a content rich website.

The documentary includes shadow puppet animations explaining the carbon trading concepts and the impacts of forests on climate change.

The Burning Season’s director, Cathy Henkel, states, “This film is going to be controversial. In test screenings, I have already found that audiences are forming very different opinions of Dorjee and his carbon trading solution. Some say that saving forests is so important and urgent that they don't care what method is used. Others argue the merits of carbon trading or say it just won’t work. And there are those who are concerned with where the profits from the scheme will go. The film has already generated heated discussion on these issues… My objective in telling this story is to give audiences the opportunity to observe a young man as he goes on a quest to find a solution to the forest crisis, to see the huge obstacles and opposition he confronts, and - despite enormous odds - watch him pull off a big deal.”

The film is financed through the Film Finance Corporation Australia with pre-sales from ABC, BBC, CBC and National Geographic International. The producers received development support from the Australian Film Commission, the NSW Film and TV Office and ABC. The documentary was produced in association with London-based executive producer Roger Graef of Films of Record and Trish Lake of Freshwater Pictures. Throughout their journey, the filmmakers received support from a philanthropic family trust in Melbourne and Northern Rivers-based private 'finance angels'.

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August 06, 2008
The Burning Season wins acclaim
‘The Burning Season’, the new documentary by award-winning filmmakers Cathy Henkel and Jeff Canin from Hatchling Productions, has been nominated for two 2008 ATOM Awards: Best Documentary Social & Political Issues and Best Documentary Science, Technology and The Environment.

The ATOM Awards are run by the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) and take place in Melbourne on 24 October.

The world premiere of ‘The Burning Season’ took place only last Saturday, on 2 August, at the Brisbane International Film Festival. After a second screening on Monday 4 August, Cathy Henkel said she was delighted to learn that the documentary was leading the race for the most popular film at the festival, as voted by audiences.

After each session, audience members at the Brisbane International Film Festival are encouraged to rate the film they have just seen using Showtime voting slips. 'The Burning Season’ was ranked number one as at Tuesday 5 August, ahead of 'Rain of the Children’ and 'The English Surgeon’. The overall audience vote winner will be announced at the end of the festival.

‘The Burning Season’ focuses on the land-clearing fires lit annually in Indonesia and explores their catastrophic impact: as well as destroying the habitat of critically-endangered orangutan, they contribute 20% of global carbon emissions.

The documentary follows a 29-year-old Australian environmental entrepreneur, Dorjee Sun, who sets out to find a solution. His idea involves selling the carbon credits represented by large forest areas in three Indonesian provinces to big polluters in the West. Despite the scepticism surrounding carbon trading, Dorjee’s quest for a ‘big deal’ takes him from Sydney to New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and London.

In the United States, PBS broadcast the documentary to widespread acclaim last month (see www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/burning-season/introduction/1627/) and it airs on BBC Four at 10pm tonight in the United Kingdom. Read the review in The Times.

‘The Burning Season’ will appear on the ABC (Australia) on 14 October 2008. It is narrated by popular Australian actor Hugh Jackman (‘X-Men’, ‘Australia’, ‘The Prestige’).

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Film
Posted: Mon., Aug. 11, 2008, 3:26pm PTBrisbane

The Burning Season
(Documentary -- Australia)
By RUSSELL EDWARDS

Powered By A Film Finance Corp. presentation of a Hatchling Films production, in association with Films of Record, Freshwater Pictures. (International sales: National Geographic Intl., Washington.) Produced by Jeff Canin, Cathy Henkel. Executive producers, Trish Lake, Roger Graef. Directed, written by Cathy Henkel.

With: Dorjee Sun, Lone Droscher-Nielsen, Achmadi.
Narrator: Hugh Jackman.
(Indonesian, English dialogue)


As inspiring as "An Inconvenient Truth" was frightening, Cathy Henkel's energetic docu, "The Burning Season," tackles one aspect of global warming and introduces people trying to make a difference. Heady facts about emission trading schemes threaten to overwhelm the viewer, but pic also packs plenty of genuine emotion, and the presence of altruistic Australian entrepreneur Dorjee Sun in the financial corridors of power gives it the same giddy atmosphere that made "Startup.com" so exhilarating. A 42-minute version aired on PBS in July; other pubcasters should. Feature-length version shown at Brisbane should be a hot ticket on the fest circuit.

Henkel starts in the jungles of Borneo, where orangutans are dying or being displaced thanks to deforestation, which covers the region in smoke and creates carbon emissions. Danish conservationist Lone Droscher-Nielsen, dedicated to saving the simians, nurses back to health the few apes she can rescue from "the burning season." Images of orangutans wandering in devastated forests are heartbreaking.

Repping deforestation's other side, pic's second thread focuses on the plight of Indonesian villager Achmadi, one of thousands who strip palm trees for palm oil (frequently marketed as vegetable oil) for international cosmetics and confectionery corporations. His motivation is simple survival -- and the rare privilege of sending his daughter to school.

Docu gains noticeable momentum with the introduction of Sydney-based entrepreneur Sun, a 29-year-old trained lawyer and vet of the dotcom boom. Wanting to make a difference, Sun looks at Indonesia -- the world's third largest carbon-emitter, after the U.S. and China -- as an obvious starting point.

So begins a race around the world as Sun attempts to apply a Wall Street mindset to the problem of global warming. His goal is to enlist conservation activists, Indonesian provincial politicians, and London and Gotham financiers to get funds and a business model in place in time for the Bali Climate Change summit in December 2007, where the Kyoto Protocol was to be renewed.

Sun both excites and confuses the international banking community with his concept of creating a market for carbon credits. Docu helpfully includes animation, in the style of Indonesian shadow puppetry, to clarify Sun's vision.

With his Anthony Robbins-like optimism and exclamations of "cool" and "awesome," Sun makes an infectious and amiable protag.

Pic criss-crosses between strands and follows events all the way to the Bali conference. Potpourri of material is well shaped and a tribute to the skill of both helmer Henkel and editor Jane St. Vincent Welch. Animation sequences by Hackett Films' Mary Benn are both edifying and visually pleasing, while Nicolette Boaz's score helps maintain dramatic momentum. Hugh Jackman's narration is somber without being melodramatic.

At screening caught, film looked just OK on DigiBeta projection; result should play better on the tube.

More than one option(Film) The Burning Season
Raul Julia, John Frankenheimer
(Film) The Burning Season
Om Puri, Harvey CrosslandCamera (color, DigiBeta), Leonard Retel Helmrich, Ismail Fahmi Lubish; editor, Jane St. Vincent Welch; music, Nicolette Boaz; sound, Handi Ilfat; animation, Mary Benn, Hackett Films. Reviewed at Brisbane Film Festival, Aug. 2, 2008. Running time: 86 MIN.