Film documenting 2003 Iraq war march to pre-screen in Wakefield
We Are Many, a film documenting the 2003 protest against the Iraq War, will be screened ahead of its release in Wakefield.
Wakefield Cineworld, in association with Sheffield Doc/Fest and Film Hub North, will present a pre-release screening of the film on 16 November followed by a live Q&A session with the director, Amir Amirani.
The film tells the story of the day over 15 million people in 800 cities marched against the Iraq War on 15 February 2003.
Co-ordinated activities spanned 72 countries and seven continents including Antarctica. It was labelled as the ‘biggest protest in human history’.
The film also includes interviews with the UN’s chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, British cabinet ministers of the time David Blunkett, Lord Falconer and Clare Short, and protest organisers, including Colleen Kelly of 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition.
In an extraordinary revelation, Sir Richard Branson also explains for the first time how an audacious plan involving Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan nearly ‘prevented the war’.
We Are Many took seven years to make and made its debut at the 2014 Sheffield International Documentary Festival.
Director Amir Amirani said: “This was my light-bulb moment. I realised that it didn’t matter where you marched – there was even a demonstration in Antarctica – the important thing was that you took part.
“I felt that day, 15 February 2003, heralded something, a new phenomenon that went to the heart of the public’s relationship with politics and each other. I also realised that something like that does not just happen. There was a story to be told.”
We Are Many is scheduled for general release in 2015.
The cast of contributors includes Damon Albarn, Tariq Ali, Tony Benn, Sir Richard Branson, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Danny Glover, Jesse Jackson, Ron Kovic, Ken Loach, Peter Oborne and Mark Rylance.
The production team includes Omid Djalili (stand-up comedian, actor in The Infidel, Gladiator, The Mummy), Pippa Harris (executive producer Jarhead, Revolutionary Road), Waël Kabbani (creative director of Iambic Dream Films), Callum McDougall (co-producer The Beach, executive producer Skyfall), Signe Byrge Sørensen (Oscar-nominated producer The Act of Killing), Taghi Amirani (producer Red Lines And Deadlines), Laura Hastings-Smith (producer Hunger), Deborah Burton (co-founder Tipping Point Film Fund) and Immy Humes (producer Oscar-nominated A Little Vicious).
You can find out more about the screening at www.cineworld.co.uk.
