Phil Ball, who spent three months in a Russian prison after armed Commandos stormed the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in 2013, will be speaking in Manchester after the showing of the documentary Black Ice, which tells the story of the group that became known as 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. 

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. 

Their imprisonment, which saw worldwide media cast the Arctic 30 in the same mould as political prisoners like Pussy Riot, lasted three months. However, their resolve to try and stop oil drilling in the Arctic was never broken. 

 Phil Ball filmed the Russian FSB team seizing the Arctic Sunrise and managed to hide the camera’s SD card in his shoe when he was arrested and taken to prison. 

When he appeared in court to be charged with hooliganism he managed to smuggle the pictures out using a matchbox with a false bottom. 

  

Phil will describe this piece of trickery, his arrest at gunpoint and his time in one of the toughest prison regimes in the world, when he tells his personal story after the film. 

 Local campaigner Martin Porter said “When the Arctic Sunrise set sail the campaign was about saving the Arctic, but very quickly it became about freeing our friends. It’s wonderful to have Phil at liberty again and in Manchester, to tell us his story and to explain why it is now more vital than ever to save the Arctic from oil exploration, and the earth from Climate Change.”

Manchester Greenpeace and the Manchester Film Cooperative will be showing the film at 7:00PM on Friday 15th May 2015 at the Eight Day Café, 111 Oxford Road, Manchester. Cost £5 waged/£3 unwaged.

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