Call for change in the face of orangutan’s threat to survival

Orangutans provide the “human face” of an environmental battle in a documentary being screened at the Schonell Theatre at The University of Queensland.

The plight of the animals is told in The Burning Season, being screened on Saturday and Monday.

The movie deals with issues such as extinction of the orangutan, the impact of climate change and the protection of rainforests in Indonesia.

At the movie’s centre is entrepreneur Dorjee Sun as he tries to find investors in a carbon trading scheme to save the rainforests and its inhabitants.

Movie director Cathy Henkel sites Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as an inspiration for The Burning Season.

It aims to inspire people to make their own adjustments to reduce their impact on the environment and climate change, with an emphasis on young audiences.

Ruari Elkington is heading a Freshwater Pictures push to encourage school and university groups to see The Burning Season in cinemas, or try to have DVDs taken to classrooms and lecture halls to show students the importance of caring for the environment.

“We need to change the mindset of future generations. Students are the next generation of consumers – and they will vote in the people who can make a difference,” Mr Elkington said.

“We have had great feedback from students. Dorjee is charismatic and engaging and everyone loves the orangutans.

“They are so darn human. In a strange way, they are like the human face of the biggest challenge of our time.”

The Burning Season will screen at the Schonell Theatre from 4.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Monday; from 4.45pm on Saturday and from 1.15pm on Sunday.

Visit www.schonell.com.

Media: Erik de Wit (3346 7086, 0417 088 772)