Planet in Focus: Rainbow Warrior
- Today, Oct 16
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Edward McGurn Run Time: 94 min. Release Year: 2022
The Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace ship that was bombed by operatives of the French government, in New Zealand in 1985, while heading to a protest against nuclear testing, tragically taking the life of photographer Fernando Pereira. Edward McGurn’s enlightening and exciting documentary uncovers a tangled tale of nuclear weapons, geopolitical coverups, and attempts to take action against impending environmental collapse. Was Pereira’s death an accident or part of a larger political plot?
On July 10 1985, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was docked in Auckland, New Zealand, en route to a protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Shortly before midnight, a pair of explosions would sink the vessel and tragically claim the life of one of its crew. Rainbow Warrior is the engrossing, stranger-than-fiction story of that fateful event and the ensuing investigation—an investigation that would thrust the unassuming Aukland police force into the centre of a genuine geopolitical conspiracy, and which would ultimately reveal Greenpeace to have been the target of a state-sponsored act of terror. Working from a trove of arresting archival material and featuring new tell-all interviews with the direct historical protagonists, director Edward McGurn has crafted a real-life spy thriller, replete with twists and shocking revelations. Released in an era of renewed nuclear anxiety, and in a moment that has seen Western governments targeting environmental activists with increasingly draconian restrictive measures, Rainbow Warrior is, despite its vintage style, a remarkably present-tense experience. -PLANET IN FOCUS
Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.