Gil Scrine Films
Web: http://theburningseasonmovie.com
The
Burning Season is a riveting documentary which examines the issue of global
warming through the lens of deforestation in Indonesia, Aceh and Papua. It
features excellent cinematography, superior editing and some superb animations.
As the film opens you see the titles in a black and white silhouette with red
and orange fires reminiscent of Indonesian puppet theatre and this style is
followed throughout the film in both animations and graphic presentations. It
is visually arresting and illustrates the superior production that is shown
throughout the film.
The
story centers on Dorjee Sun, a young Australian entrepreneur who wants to not
only make money but make an impact within the climate change field. He comes to
realize not only the detrimental effect deforestation is having in Indonesia,
Aceh and Papua but the market potential of these forests as carbon sinks. He
invests his own funds to buy a startup company and starts travelling around the
world looking for financial backers. He is able to get various countries on
board, notably the effervescent governor of Aceh. At the same time he finds it hard to convince
businesses to invest, he is rejected by some 200 businesses until Merrill-Lynch
comes on board. Not before, however, a nervous wait for the climate conference
at Bali to put deforestation into the carbon trading scheme and for final
signatures.
This
is a fast paced and fascinating tale but would lack a certain emotional impact
if not intertwined with other stories along the way and this is what makes the
film so successful. We meet Lone who runs an Orangutan center and is working
against the clock to save the Orangutans left starving and injured after the “Tsunami”
of forest burning have swept through. It is a powerful and emotional story as
you see these beautiful apes left suffering by man’s stupidity. One of the most
touching images is of a starving Orangutan baby; it is so human like you wonder
how anyone could ignore its plight.
We
also meet Achmadi, a poor palm oil farmer who does not even make enough to feed
his family, never mind put his daughter through school. He brings a different side
of the equation into play. At times environmentalists from the West can give
the impression that they are trying to enforce conservation values on the third
world regardless of the cost. It is through Achmadi we come to appreciate how
he is driven to burn his small plot of land from necessity, not from greed and
we follow him as he finds a new way to work his plot with the intervention of a
local conservation organization. This of course links back to Dorjee’s proposal
which provides financial assistance for those changing the way they farm their
land and indeed creates new employment for those put out of work as deforestation
is stopped as forest guardians etc.
The
way in which these individual stories are intertwined offers us insight into
the various aspects of the carbon trading proposal from economic to political, from
the smaller farmer to the government, from the protection to animals to the
reduction of C02 in the atmosphere. Carefully avoiding interviews with talking
heads and too much preaching, this is a documentary which communicates its
message in an interesting and insightful. Hugh Jackman as the narrator is also
a very nice touch.
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This
review will appear in Volume 2 No.5
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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