Amplifying the truth, reason and love spoken in our courtrooms by peaceful environmental defenders and exposing the shocking response of the UK state judiciary to vilify and silence them.
In this short promo for the first in a series of upcoming films, nine women tell their story of the day that they took action to call attention to HSBC’s destructive investment in fossil fuels, and the trial that followed.
In a decision which vindicated their actions against Europe’s second largest investor in fossil fuels, HSBC, a jury at Southwark Crown Court returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’ after just two hours of deliberation.
Their words providing factual context to their actions in the face of the climate and ecology collapse brought the some of the jury to tears. On 18 March 2024, following an application from the Attorney General, the Court of Appeal ruled that in future cases, juries would not be allowed to hear evidence of mass loss of life from climate breakdown, relied on by the HSBC Nine.
Why are so many good people feeling compelled to break the law and risk their liberty?
The Not Guilty project sets out to capture their motivations, emotions and stories, which led them to the courtroom.
This project was inspired by the truth and power of the words the HSBC nine spoke to the jury as they persuaded them towards a verdict of not guilty.
Our initial objectives have expanded to include interviews with a wider range of brave climate and ecology activists involved in other cases, some of whom were given sentences or awaiting trials. Additionally, we are now interviewing figures within the legal profession and beyond who are becoming seriously alarmed by the UK’s increasingly authoritarian clampdown on any dissenting voices. In the words of Trudi Warner, “the state is really trying to silence the people we really need to be hearing.”
This project is evolving from a film that tells an extraordinary story, into a series, and an information hub, as history continues to unfold in front of us. While activists are facing ever harsher treatment, the power of juries to prevent this is being eroded.
This project calls to attention something outside ordinary press cycles. There is something important happening, and upcoming cases which will test the UK’s crumbling democratic and legal values. The government has become increasingly desperate and imprisoned more and more of the best of us. The alarm is being raised, but it must be amplified if this dangerous trajectory is to be interrupted and reversed.
