ShAFF Goes To The Antarctic!
1st Mar 2013
News of the 8th Sheffield Adventure Film Festival which kicks off today at the Showroom Cinema has reached the ends of the earth - quite literally. Scientists at Britain’s latest Antarctic Research Station - the British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Halley VI - which became fully operational this month will be screening a Best of ShAFF showing at the base later in the year.
ShAFF Festival Director Matt Heason said: "Every year we go the extra mile to show the best films from around the world at ShAFF but this will be the first time ShAFF has ever gone to the ends of the earth. ShAFF's all about showing athletes and adventurers pushing the limits of extreme sports and exploration so where better to put on a screening than in the Antarctic and when better than 100 years after Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic expedition? We're also delighted to be able to team up with our video download partners at 'SteepEdge' to help make this a reality." (Photo ©Antony Dubber British Antarctic Survey).
Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, the British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Halley VI Research Station is set to become an icon for British science, architecture and engineering. The new research station, which replaces the 20-year old Halley V facility, is the sixth to be built on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf. The first station, occupied in 1957 for a Royal Society expedition during the International Geophysical Year, established the region as an important natural laboratory for studying the Earth’s magnetic field and the near-space atmosphere. It was data from Halley that led to the 1985 BAS discovery of the ozone hole. (Read more about the launch: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/press_releases/press_release.php?id=2057)
Linda Capper, Head of Communications from BAS, said: “Research carried out at Halley since the 1950s has made a vital contribution to our understanding about the impact of human activity on the natural environment as it's at the Poles that the first signs of global change can be measured. In their first summer field season our scientists are already working collaboratively with colleagues from USA including NASA on studies that will gain new knowledge about how our world works. But it's also important that during long, winter nights the team have ways to relax and enjoy themselves." (Photo ©British Antarctic Survey)
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
ShAFF is on at from Friday 1st March to Sunday 3rd March at the Showroom Workstation, Sheffield www.shaff.co.uk (PR Lissa Cook 07818 411 791 [email protected])
For more on BAS visit www.antarctica.ac.uk
Download high res versions of these images here: https://www.yousendit.com/download/UW14QndBT01sUjl2TzhUQw (Please credit Antony Dubber British Antarctic Survey for HalleyVI pic and British Antarctic Survey for photo in front of module.)
