Gravitas Ventures Acquires Sean Garrity's The Burning Season
By Jamie Casemore
Playback; Oct 16, 2024
EXCLUSIVE: The film stars Jonas Chernick and Sara Canning as two lovers in an ongoing affair at a lake resort.
Winnipeg director Sean Garrity’s film The Burning Season has been picked up for international distribution, excluding Canada, by the Cleveland-based Gravitas Ventures.
Gravitas is set to release the film on digital and cable transactional VOD platforms for purchase and rental on Dec. 10, alongside the Canadian distributor Northern Banner, which will be releasing the film domestically on the same day.
The deal was negotiated by Gravitas’ Bill Guentzler as well as Film Associates International’s Brigitte Hubmann and Jennifer Price on behalf of the producers.
Northern Banner, the Canadian distribution arm of the Toronto-based Raven Banner Entertainment, released the film theatrically on May 10.
The film had its world premiere at last year’s Whistler Film Festival and is the seventh feature film collaboration between Garrity and star Jonas Chernick, who also wrote and produced. Some of their previous collaborations include Inertia, Lucid, Blood Pressure and The End of Sex.
Written by Chernick and Diana Frances (Overlord and the Underwoods), The Burning Season stars Chernick as the owner of a lake resort who becomes involved in a complicated love affair with one of his long-time renters, played by Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries).
Also starring in the film is Tanisha Thammavongsa (Swindler Seduction) and Joe Pingue (Kody Kapow).
Chernick, with his prodco Banana-Moon-Sky Films, produced the film alongside Good Movies’ Andrew Bronfman both based in Toronto. Funding was provided by Telefilm Canada, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, CBC Films, Hollywood Suite and the Canada Media Fund. The film was developed with support from the Harold Greenberg Fund and Telefilm.
Executive producers on the film include Frances, Fab Filippo, Jonathan Bronfman, Peter Harvey, Hollywood Suite’s David Kines and Sam Posner.
Rounding out the EPs is Anick Poirier; Lorne Price; Bruno Dubé; and Raven Banner Entertainment’s Andrew Thomas Hunt, Michael Paszt and James Fler.
