The Burning Season won the IF Award for Best Documentary this week on the Gold Coast. This is a great award for this film so early in its life - it is voted by audiences.
The film has had six cinema screenings to date, and I have been able to experience how powerfully audiences respond and how uplifted and motivated they feel at the end. The reason people are loving this film is because there is a hunger for positive stories that inspire hope. We saw that in the USA elections last week. The television versions have also had a positive, if more subdued response from audiences. The forums afterwards, especially in the US and Australia were enthusiastic and again people thanked us for giving them hope. Both Dorjee and I have received hundreds of emails and messages.
I can confirm that we will have a theatrical release of the film in Australia early next year alongside the DVD and multi-platform release - we are creating a new template for documentary distribution in this country.
The film will also have a global release, beginning with a major international festival next year - very exciting and will let you know when its confirmed. We have a wonderful international sales agent involved and some exciting interest from the US. I am making a few changes and updating the film for the cinema release with a new beginning and ending, which will include Arnold Schwarzenegger. I am off to LA tomorrow where Dorjee and Governor Irwandi are meeting Arnie on Tuesday night. As many of you know, Dorjee and I always intended to meet Arnie, and include him in the film somehow, and this is now happening.
In LA, I will document The Governor's Global Climate Summit hosted by Governor Schwarzenegger and attended by world leaders who have a commitment to doing something about climate change. I also have some great meetings lined up, including one with Participant Productions (who produced "An Inconvenient Truth") and lunch with Eve Orner, winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary this year. Eva was the presenter of our award the other night.
This is the best of times and the worst of times. I feel like I'm riding a great wave at the moment; its scary and exhilarating, and so long as I can keep my head up and keep breathing, it'll be worth it. The message of the film and the work we are all doing to promote it is that we have to save the forests of the world in order to keep this planet habitable, and we need people, like Dorjee, with smart solutions, bold vision and the energy and passion to make this happen. The mantra of our mission is the same one that brought the wave of change to the USA last week - YES WE CAN.
Cathy Henkel, writer/director/producer
Pictured below (l-r): Trish Lake, Jeff Canin, Felicity Blake, Cathy Henkel, SamLara Canin-Henkel
