The Burning Season

The Burning Season screens to 220 people who take action!

The screening held by the Mosman Climate Challenge Group on August 27th was a huge success thanks to local community, says Dana Mills. "About 220 people attended and it (the film) received a lot of positive feedback."  

"After the movie we had a talk by Jan Hindmarsh from Borneo Orangutan Survival group which was also well received and will hopefully result in a decent amount of money going towards supporting the orangutans." 

Keep an eye out for other community screenings coming soon,  "Several people were interested in showing the movie either to their particular interest group or organisation." 

"It is a great movie and we were proud to be able to show it to our audience." 

Well done Mosman Climate Challenge Group!! 

If you would like to organise your own screening of The Burning Season please contact: gil@gilscrinefilms.com.au 

Mosman Climate Challenge Group to screen The Burning Season

Three years ago a small group of women living in Mosman who shared concerns about the environment and waste of resources such as water and energy, formed the Mosman Climate Challenge Group. Their aims were not on a big scale. They chose to keep their efforts local and look at how they could inspire residents to conserve energy where possible, and generally be mindful about compost, plastic bags, use of water and electricity.

 

'Part of our program is to show an informative and challenging documentary each year,' says Dana Mellis. 'So far, we’ve had a fantastic response. The films chosen are not always on general release and if they are, do not get a long run at cinemas. A private showing at the local cinema creates a social occassion, educates and improves consciousness of the big environmental issues that affect our planet.' 

 

This year the Mosman Climate Challenge Group has chosen "The Burning Season" as its movie and are being supported by The Borneo Orangutan Survival Organisation. Previous movies have been Peak Oil and The Power of Community -- How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.

The screening will be on 27 August.

Education screening

Queensland Academy for Creative Industries organised a school excursion to see The Burning Season at The Blue Room in Brisbane. Film teacher Prue Miles sent the following feedback.

"It was a great location to see your work in and we filled the 60 seats perfectly. My observations of the students whilst watching the film were that they were really engaged with the content and they were actually very vocal in their response to certain characters / scenes. It is quite a different experience watching a film with a room full of adolescents. I think they really identify with Dorjee and his passion."

The school hosted a seminar on the making of The Burning Season for the film students at the school on Thursday 20th August. 

Pictured below: Cathy Henkel and QACA students

Some feedback from a student:

"Today film maker and producer, Cathy Henkel, visited our school, the Queensland Academy for Creative Industries, to speak with us about her new documentary, “The Burning Season”. Not only this, but she discussed with us the creative process behind film-making, and then how to distribute and sell our product, as well as the key ingredients essential to creating films within the film industry. Her new documentary, “The Burning Season”, was inspired after she viewed “An Inconvenient Truth”, a film about the impacts of climate change. This inspired her, and led her to her passion about fighting this issue, as she began to research, which is the starting point of creating a documentary.

"Personally, I felt that what she said was highly applicable in relation to what we are doing presently in film, which is the study of documentaries, and then creating one. Her passion was inspiring, and her advice incredibly helpful in that we can apply a lot of the themes into our productions. Not only this, but she told us about how to make a profile for ourselves."

Cathy Henkel was both intriguingly informative, as well as passionate, and much like the strong characters within her films."

Year 10 QACI student Bella Anderson

Screening raises more than $20,000 for orangutans

Melanie Vandervord was inspired to hold a fundraiser screening of The Burning Season on Thursday 30 July after after seeing the documentary at the Sydney Film Festival in June. Earlier, Melanie and her husband had adopted Kesi (one of the orphans at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan). Kesi was rescued from a palm oil plantation in Central Kalimantan and was only three months old when she arrived, missing her left hand. Her mother was killed with a machete, and in the process Kesi lost her hand. This usually is the tragically brutal fate of many orangutans caught on palm oil plantations.

 

"The Burning Season is such a wonderful film," says Melanie. "So inspiring, and gives us all hope that time has not run out. We all need to protect the forests (and, in doing this, protect the animals) now.

 

"The event was a huge success – I had 185 attendees and raised $9000."

This amount was matched by an anonymous donor in New Jersey, USA, bringing the total raised to more than $20,000.

 

All proceeds will go to the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation and Reintroduction Project, in Central Kalimantan, Borneo. This centre was established to rescue captive or threatened orangutans and, through education and half-way housing, release them back into their natural environment. Increasingly, they are rescuing more and more orangutans displaced by palm oil plantations, and attacked by plantation workers. Nyaru Menteng also helps protect large areas of forest for orangutan reintroduction.

 

Melanie says: "I will continue to raise awareness of what is happening in Indonesia, and continue to try to raise more $ for the orangutan orphanage."

The World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA) has also raised $60,000 from an appeal which included a DVD featuring footage the producers of The Burning Season provided from Lone's centre in Kalimantan. In addition, they raised nearly $7,000 from the State Theatre/ Sydney Film Festival screening of the film in June, according to Michel Zwecker from WSPA, Sydney.

"These are great outcomes for the film and for orangutans," says producer/director Cathy Henkel.

(Above) Malanie Vandervord at The Burning Season exhibition at Customs House, after the fundraiser screening at Dendy Opera Quays

Gold Coast screening

The Burning Season has its Gold Coast premiere on Friday 31 July. 

The event was initiated and hosted by Casey Marshall Siemer, Festival Director of Gold Coast Film Fantastic.  

The day included a lunch at Bond University, a one hour lecuture by producer/director Cathy Henkel and producer Trish Lake for Bond University students on the making of the film and interviews for the local media.  The screening was well attended and generated a very positive, enthusiastic response. Gold Coast Film Fantastic also organised a live band and three male models body-painted in the themes of the film. After the screening, everyone moved to Cafe Bellago at Emerald Lakes for the Nifsan GCFF Screen Industry Drinks. 

At the Gold Coast premiere of THE BURNING SEASON

Byron Bay screening

The Burning Season opened at Dendy Byron Bay on Thursday 30 July. Cathy Henkel took this opportunity to visit the area that for the past 25 years she has called home. Producer Trish Lake and Cathy's assistant Tara Wardrop and daughter Samlara also came to the Bay for the occassion. The screening was hosted by Rainforest Rescue and Screenworks and was well attended. After the film, everyone who had worked on the film or supported it in some way joined the three producers (Cathy, Trish and Jeff Canin) on stage to take a bow. Jeff Dawson from the Echo took a photo of the crew on the Dendy steps and then everyone went across the road for an after-party organised by Rainforest Rescue. Local Indonesian musician Tommee entertained the crowd, which included many well known identities from the Northern Rivers film-making community. 

The team stayed with Byron residents Christopher and Lynda Dean who supported the film during its production stage. Before the screening, Christopher led Cathy and Tara on a walk up to the lighthouse where they had wonderful views of whales at play.  After the party, the crew ended up in the Dean's sauna and spa singing old songs from the seventies under the moonlight. As Trish Lake so aptly put it: "if you're going to crash and burn in the film industry, you may as well have fun doing it". 

Cathy Henkel returns to Byron for opening at Dendy Byron Bay