Frederik @ 'Our Arctic Challenge' premiere

Crown Prince Frederik with Professor Jacqueline McGlade and photographer John McConnico. Photo © Anne Bang/Sermitsiaq.gl

Last Monday evening (November 26) Crown Prince Frederik attended the premiere of the film Our Arctic Challenge at the European Environment Agency's office in Copenhagen, which is an agency of the European Union.

From Sermitsiaq.gl - Crown Prince attends film premiere:

Crown Prince Frederik paid a royal visit to the opening of the film on the world's most demanding ski race, the SIKU Extreme Arctic Challenge

The European Environmental Agency in Copenhagen welcomed Crown Prince Frederik on Monday for the premiere of the world's most difficult ski race which takes place in Tasiilaq.

The organisers of the Siku Extreme Arctic Challenge and the European Environmental Agency hosted the event.

Every year the Danish film company Ace & Ace makes a film about the gruelling race, and Crown Prince Frederik, who was the patron of the race in 2001, was invited to oversee the premiere together with 32 diplomats and other guests.

The film's title this year is 'Our Arctic Challenge'.

'The film deals with climate change seen from an eastern Greenland angle but with an international perspective,' said Anders Stenbakken to Friday's edition of Sermitsiaq.

The film lasts 52 minutes and was recorded on Ammassalik Island in July, where two teams from the Environmental Agency participated in the race. One of the participants in the race was Jacqueline McGlade, who together with photographer John McConnico welcomed the Crown Prince.

Also see Sermitsiaq.gl for the story about John McConnico's photos - Prize-winning photographer displays pictures of eastern Greenland:

The Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist John McConnico opens a new exhibit on Greenland.
Photo © John McConnico
The world-famous photographer John McConnico visted Tasiilaq this past July in conjunction with the Siku Arctic Team Challenge. During his visit, McConnico snapped away at the local population and eastern Greenland’s bountiful landscapes.
The pictures from this journey will be on display at the office of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen during the city’s annual Culture Night held Friday.
The exhibit, ‘Changing Climate - Changing People’, gathers the prize-winning photographer’s pictures from eastern Greenland for the first time.
McConnico has travelled several times to Greenland, most recently this past week where together with a journalist from The New York Times he visited southern Greenland and Nuuk to document climate change and the Inuits’ lifestyle in the Arctic.
As an Associated Press photographer, he has worked in over 75 countries the past 15 years.
The Copenhagen exhibit will be on display until Christmas.

Sermitsiaq.gl '10 hold klar til næste års strabadser i Tasiilaq' (in Danish) - SIKU Extreme Arctic Challenge 2008 is now open to sign up. Thursday November 15th the SIKU Extreme Arctic Challenge 2008 to take place on Ammassalik Island is now open for registration by intending participants. And already on the first day the race management in Tasiilaq received registrations from ten teams. The ten teams ready for next year's hardships in Tasiilaq come from Australia, England, the USA, Denmark and Greenland...This year's race was won by the Danish team ISI Solomon with the two Greenlandic teams Neriusaaq and Maniitsoq right on their heels. A film from the 2007 race "Our Arctic Challenge" will have its opening night on Monday November 26th in Copenhagen. Crown Prince Frederik, who was patron for the race in 2001, will be present at the opening night. The film will be shown later locally and on TV stations all over the world.

JP webTV clip (1:22)

European Environment Agency
Our Arctic Challenge about the premiere
Introduction to the documentary (1:29)

In 2000 Crown Prince Frederik went on a 2,800 km expedition in Greenland called Sirius 2000. You can see the film made during the expedition here. As for Expedition Sirius 2000, after the indoor life in Paris, Crown Prince Frederik went to Northern Greenland. He had volunteered as one of the six sledge drivers on the privately organised sledge expedition Sirius 2000. The expedition was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sledge Patrol Sirius, which is responsible for the surveillance of North and North East Greenland and the enforcement of Danish sovereignty. The 2,800 kilometres journey lasted four months. The Danes were able to follow the journey through a series of television documentaries, where the Crown Prince himself talked about the hardships and the wonderful experiences of nature.

Frederik maintains his interest in Greenland as patron of the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, Galathea 3, the Greenlandic Society and various other activities in scientific, cultural and social areas (ie: Frederik's and Mary's charitable donations to children's projects in Greenland).