The Burning Season

The Burning Season US Digital Release!!

The Burning Season is set for a major US digital release in 2011 after a deal with New York based Film Buff was signed off this week. 

 

Film Buff is part of Cinetic Media, who are very enthusiastic about the movie and have an innovative plan for a wide global release. Two years after its Australian release, its very gratifying to see The Burning Season and its inspiring story about saving the world's forests finally able to reach audiences wherever they are located across the globe.  

The film will be available on a wide range of digital platforms including: iTunes, Amazon, Playstation, XBox, Netflix, Hulu, Snag and other related VOD and streaming outlets. 

The deal, which has the approval of all parties and opens up exciting new markets for this film, was set in motion last October when Cathy Henkel met with Steve Beckman at FilmBuff in New York.  The appetite in the US for environment stories is growing, especially across digital platforms, and Steve particularly likes The Burning Season because of its cinematic story-telling, its strong environmental messages conveyed in an inspiring and entertaining way, and how it "works on so many levels".

This is a great outcome for The Burning Season, enabling the film to finally get the release in the US and rest of world it deserves. 

 

The Burning Season DVD available in Australia for Purchase Online

Australian audiences can purchase this award-winning film on DVD (plus over 55 minutes of extra footage) from a number of sources: 

 

• From Antidote Films 

Schools/universities, government departments or community groups wishing to organise a screening, please contact:  tarawardrop@virgoproductions.com.au 

• From Madman

• From the Virgo Productions Website 

More information about the film: www.theburningseasonmovie.com 

Want to take action?   

www.tenthingsyoucando.com 

 

SCEG screening

The movie The Burning Season was shown to over 60 people in Torquay Victoria on Friday 9th July 2010, as part of the Surf Coast Energy Group (SCEG) eco film season. As well as viewing this award winning Australian documentary, the community heard from Cathy Henkel, the film’s producer, writer and director. Cathy inspired the audience by discussing what we can all do to take action locally and help rescue the rainforests and orangutans. Cathy gave a sneak insight into her current project featuring Dorjee Sun’s next mission, leading us to also think of ways our local school students can help save the world!

About SCEG: We are a diverse not-for-profit group of over 400 Victorian Surf Coast residents united by a concern for climate change. SCEG takes action at a local level to bring about achievable environmental change within our community. We use our collective voice to influence government to bring about positive environmental change at a national level. For more information, see www.sceg.org.au.

Karen Brassington, SCEG 

 

Cathy Henkel with the SCEG team. 
 

Be The Change

BE THE CHANGE is a community project and roadshow of the award-winning Australian documentary, The Burning Season. The BE THE CHANGE pilot project involes a team visiting schools and communities in regional NSW and helping young people 'be the change they want to see in the world'.  To date, the team have visited Merriwa, Coffs Harbour, Mullumbimby, Bellingen, Gloucester and Camden Haven. Follow-up visits, and documentation of the action taken by the students is currently underway. 

The response so far has been enthusiastic, and at times, quite moving. As one student expressed it:  "it has been amazing to do something so different. Instead of learning out of  textbooks and reading off the whiteboard, we became personally invested in the issues and this has helped to understand our place in the real world". 

Check out our Facebook page for the latest news  - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Be-The-Change/122972327720580?ref=

 

 Be The Change team and students from Merriwa Central School
 

The Burning Season in Beijing!

Cathy has been invited to Beijing for the IDOCS 2010 (an international documentary forum) in December this year. She will give a professional masterclass and seminar for Chinese filmmakers and audiences during IDOCS 2010.  

The 2010 iDOCS will feature screenings, seminars and masterclass workshops. Twenty documentaries from all over the world will have premiere screenings in China during the 6 days. Nine filmmakers have been invited to the forum to give the masterclass workshops. The target attendees of the forum will be professionals from TV stations, film production companies, industry associations, independent filmmakers, film festival workers and college students. 

The Burning Season is being translated into Mandarin, along with Cathy's seminal film, The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face.  

More information on this event available here:  http://www.idocs.cn/English/

The Burning Season will also screen as part of the annual Pacific Rim Film Festival, held in California in October. . 

More information here: http://www.pacrimfilmfestival.org/

World Environment Day screening

The Burning Season will be screening at 12.30pm, Saturday 5th June, as part of the first Logan Eco Action Festival. Cathy Henkel is also a guest speaker! 

Find out more about your local environment, what we should do to protect it and best of all see how you can save money. 

With an array of exhibitors, live music, wildlife shows, demonstrations and hands-on workshops, organic food markets, children's activities, giveaways and much more, this free community festival welcomes everyone of all ages to attend and most importantly, participate! 

When: Saturday 5th June 2010 - World Environment Day 

Time: 10am - 5pm. Screening at 12.30pm  

Where: Griffith University Logan Campus, University Dr, Meadowbrook 

Find out more here: 

http://www.logan.qld.gov.au/LCC/logan/thingstodo/leaf/

 
 

The Burning Season now in video stores across Australia.

This letter came in from a friend in far off Margaret River in regional WA. There's no excuse any more not to see The Burning Season.  For the sake of the forests, and the organutans, please check it out in your local video store - and spread the word to everyone you know.....

Hey Cathy,

I finally got to see The Burning Season yesterday. I found it in Margaret River Civic Video as a new release!!

What an amazingly powerful documentary.

It boggles my mind how you got all that footage and were there at the coal face as events unfolded.

What an extraordinary guy Dorjee is and the Governor of Aceh! But just as much, just as extraordinary that you captured this time in history for the world to see, by bringing all the threads together on film. You are one of the blessed weavers of truth.

Also, I read recently of your award for the extent of the distribution that you and Trish Lake and Gil Scrine have achieved in distributing The Burning Season. If the film could make it to the shelves of our little video store at the bottom of the world, then how many more people will have had the benefit of seeing it all around Australia and the world!

It has your signature all over it - in its subject, it's narrative and mostly in its heart.

So congratulations to you all - and thank you so much for being there once again, in the right time and place - to bring the real world to our consciousness.

Margot Edwards

Writer/Community Theatre Artist

Margaret River, Western Australia 

Byron Bay Film Festival kudos for Cathy Henkel

Cathy Henkel was recently awarded the inaugural Honary Award at the 2010 Byron Bay International Film Festival. This award is in recognition of her consistently outstanding achievements and her contribution to the creative industries in the Northern Rivers. 

Check out the full article in Filmink here

Cathy also made the front cover of the Byron Echo - a high point in her career! 

Congratulations Cathy! 

Screening in Washington

The Burning Season screened in Washington yesterday as part of the Environmental Film Festival in the Nations Capital. Cathy attended the event to introduce the film and take part in the Q & A afterwards, hosted by Geoffrey Dabelko, Director of Environmental Change at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre. 

Over 200 people packed the theatre and by the time the film started, there was standing room only. 

The audience was very responsive to both the film and in the discussion afterwards. The director of The Dutch Environmental Film Festival was in the audeince and she has emailed us today inviting the film to screen at their festival in June. 

Here is a link to a blog post posted on Planet Forward, plus video of extracts of Cathy's Q & A. 

 http://www.planetforward.org/profiles/blogs/indonesias-forests-are-burning

BURNING SEASON DVD Pre-order offer

Pre-order you BURNING SEASON DVD now and help save the Orangutans!! 

Thanks to DVD distributor MADMAN, when you pre-order THE BURNING SEASON on DVD from their website, $5 from your purchase will be donated to WSPA to help the orangutan rehabilitation centre featured in the documentary. 

BONUS: Your DVD will be mailed to you free of charge!

The DVD includes 55mins of extras, specials and additional orangutan footage. 

See below instructions for this great offer. 

DVD IS RELEASE MARCH 10th!!  

 Link to Madman: http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?releaseId=13246&method=view