''The Burning Season'' is a documentary about the burning of rainforests in Indonesia which premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

in 2008. The main characters featured in the film are:

Dorjee Sun Dorjee Sun (born 1977) is a social entrepreneur based in Singapore. His work for Carbon Conservation was the subject of the international feature documentary '' The Burning Season'' in 2008. He currently serves as director of Who Gives, Carbon A ...

from Australia; Achmadi, a small-scale palm oil farmer from Jambi province in Indonesia; and

Lone Drøscher Nielsen Lone Drøscher Nielsen (born 1964) is a Danish wildlife conservationist who established the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia in 1998. Early life and work She was born and grew up in Aabybro, Denmark. ...

, a Danish conservationist based in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Synopsis

Every year, there is a burning season in Indonesia. Areas of rainforest the size of Denmark are cut down and set alight by farmers and corporations to develop palm oil plantations. As well as destroying the habitat of critically endangered orangutans, new scientific evidence shows that deforestation comprises 20% of global carbon emissions, contributing significantly to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. A 30-year-old Australian environmental entrepreneur,

, sets out to find a solution. Using expertise gained during the dot-com boom, Dorjee forms a small carbon-trading firm and signs up three pioneering Indonesian governors to partner in his venture. His idea involves selling the carbon credits represented by large forest areas in Aceh and Papua to big carbon emitters in the West. Despite the scepticism surrounding carbon trading, Dorjee's quest for a 'big deal' takes him from Sydney to New York, Washington DC, San Jose, San Francisco and London. Meanwhile, another burning season is underway. Achmadi, a small-scale Indonesian farmer, sets fire to his newly acquired piece of forest to clear it for palm oil. But he too has to face up to the impact of his burning on the global climate. And in Borneo, Danish-born Lone Drøscher-Nielsen rescues and cares for orangutans injured or orphaned by the fires. As she prepares for the release of rehabilitated orangutans back into the wild, the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali commences. Everything hinges on whether all the countries of the world can agree on the wording of a new climate change protocol and whether protection of forests will be included. As the drama of this historic moment plays out, Dorjee relentlessly pursues his deal. Is he a pioneer or a profiteer? What value does his concept offer to the remaining forests of the world and to the challenges of climate change?.

Production

The film was updated in 2009 with a new ending which included the impacts of the global financial crisis and a meeting with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film had a theatrical release in Australia and a digital release in the USA through FilmBuff. The DVD remains widely used in the education sector. The production attracted philanthropic support through the Documentary Australia Foundation, including from an unnamed Melbourne family trust. Broadcast partners were ABC, BBC and CBC with National Geographic as distributor. Financial support was also provided by the

Film Finance Corporation Australia The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) was the government agency responsible for funding commercial productions of Australian film, documentary, and television from 1988 to 2008. Unlike other publicly funded organisations responsible for f ...

, the NSW Film and TV Office and the Australian Film Commission. A total production budget of $755,529 was raised.

Executive Producer

While

Roger Graef Roger Arthur Graef OBE (18 April 1936 – 2 March 2022) was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investiga ...

is credited as the film's Executive Producer on the production's website, the post-roll credits on the Australian DVD release list him more specifically as the Executive Producer of the BBC version of the film.

Awards

*Brisbane International Film Festival Audience Choice Award 2008 review Cutref> *

Inside Film Award The Inside Film Awards (now known as the IF Awards) is an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry, developed by the creators of Inside Film Magazine, Stephen Jenner and David Barda, and originally produced f ...

for Best Documentary * nominated for an EMMY Award (Outstanding Documentary on a Business Topic) * Producer/Director Cathy Henkel awarded SPAA (Screen Producer Association of Australia) Documentary Producer of the Year Award for her work on The Burning Season.

References

External links