Cathy Henkel arrived in Beijing last week as a featured guest of the iDOCS Beijing International Documentary Forum. The prestigious event is being held at the Beijing Film Academy, a 60 year old film school! The 800-seat auditorium was full on the opening night as the Australian Cultural Affairs representative from the Australian Embassy honored Cathy for being one of seven international guests asked to attend the forum. Cathy is both excited and anxious to start this intense week, in which she will be presenting a master class for a potential audience of 200 people.The Burning Season will screen this week as part of the Forum, with Mandarin sub-titles.
On the first day of the Forum, Cathy was interviewed by China Central Television (CCTV), for a program called ‘World Film Report’. The 40 minute interview, with clips from The Burning Season, will be screened at the end of January to an expected audience of around 20 million! The reporter informed Cathy that a previous interview conducted during the Guangzhou Film Festival in 2008 for a major online network was a huge hit and has been watched by millions. This was one of several reasons she was asked to return to China as an international guest at the iDOCS forum. More news from Beijing soon!
The audience for the opening night film – this is the theatre where The Burning Season will be screened.
With San San who is Cathy’s personal minder while in China
Cathy with the other invited international filmmakers at the international film production and financing forum.