We are showing the new Greenpeace film Black Ice Sunday the 15th of March at 6:30 at Wharf street chambers and everybody is very welcome.
Black Ice - the story of the Arctic 30
When the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise set sail to protest the first ever oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, none of the people on board could have known what was coming.
Seized at gunpoint by Russian special forces, the ‘Arctic 30’ were thrust into headlines all over the world, facing up to 15 years in prison and finding themselves at the centre of a bitter international dispute.
A similar protest the previous year at the same oil platform had seen the Greenpeace activists walk away untouched. This time, the events that unfolded sent shockwaves across the world.
With the eyes of the world upon them, Russia charged the crew, from 18 different countries, with piracy and hooliganism in the most ruthless response from a national government against an NGO in a quarter of a century.
Their imprisonment, which saw worldwide media cast the Arctic 30 in the same mould as political prisoners like Pussy Riot and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, lasted months. However, their resolve to try and stop oil drilling in the Arctic was never broken.
Complete with never-before-seen footage and behind-the-scenes access, ‘Black Ice’ tells the story of the Arctic 30 from the moment they set sail to protest at the controversial Prirazlomnaya oil platform, to their arrest, imprisonment… and what happened next.
Born in 1965 and hailing from South Africa, Willie MacKenzie has been Greenpeace’s International Executive Director since November 2009.
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