YEAR:
2008
WRITER & DIRECTOR:
Cathy Henkel
PRODUCERS:
Cathy Henkel, Jeff Canin and Trish Lake
DISTRIBUTION:
DocPlay and National Geographic
WEBSITE:
IMDB:
WINNER:
If Award, Best Documentary; Brisbane International Film Festival, Audience Choice Award; Canada International Film Festival, Rising Star Award; Nimbin Film Festival, Best Documentary.
NOMINATED:
Gold Panda Award, Sichuan TV Festival, China; Emmy Award, Outstanding Documentary On A Business Topic; Best Director, Documentary Feature, Australian Directors Guild; Atom Award, Best Documentary.
SELECTED:
Tribeca Film Festival, New York; Sydney Film Festival, Runner Up, Audience Choice Award; St Tropez Film Festival, France; iDOCS International Documentary Forum, Invited Guest, Beijing; plus over 100 other international festivals.
SYNOPSIS
THE BURNING SEASON is an eco-thriller about a young man not afraid to confront the biggest challenge of our time.
Dorjee Sun, a young Australian entrepreneur, believes there’s money to be made from protecting rainforests in Indonesia, saving the orangutan from extinction and making a real impact on climate change.
His first challenge is to convince three Indonesian governors to support his carbon trading scheme. Then, armed with a backpack and laptop, he sets out across the globe, to find investors in his carbon trading scheme. It is a battle against time. Achmadi, the palm oil farmer, is ready to set fire to his land to plant more palm oil. Lone’s orangutan centre in Kalimantan has reached crisis point with over 600 orangutans rescued from the fires. Dorjee’s quest takes him to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali and finally to California to meet Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
THE BURNING SEASON was broadcast on ABC, BBC, CBC and PBS in 2008. The theatrical version was released in April 2009 at the Tribeca Film Festival and in limited release in cinemas in June 2009. The DVD was released in March 2010 and is available through Madman Entertainment.
THE BURNING SEASON won the IF Award for Best Documentary and the Audience Choice Award at the Brisbane International Film festival in 2008. It was nominated for an EMMY Award (Outstanding Documentary on a Business Topic), two ATOM Awards and a Golden Panda Award. Cathy was nominarted for Best Director by the Australian Directors Guild. In 2009, Cathy won the SPAA Documentary Producer of the Year Award for her work on The Burning Season.