The Shore Break documentary

The Shore Break is an award-winning film that unpacks the dilemma faced by a rural community on South Africa’s Wild Coast as to whether to support or resist a proposed titanium mining project that could fundamentally change their lives forever. After successful screenings in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Toronto, June is a busy month for The Shore Break when it will be screening in Sydney, Buenos Aires with it’s South African Premier in Cape Town and Jozi!

Directed by Ryley Grunenwald, The Shore Break was a selected project at the 2012 Durban FilmMart, the IDFA WorldView Summer School 2013, the Hot Docs Forum 2012 and the Hot Docs Dealmakers 2013. It was in competition at the recent International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and was named the Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2015 International Environmental Film Festival (FIFE) in Paris.

In the Amadiba area, in the heart of breathtakingly beautiful rural Wild Coast, the Pondo people have tended their traditional way of life for centuries. A proposed titanium mine and the government’s controversial plan to build a highway across this ancestral ground, has polarized the community with those that see it as the beginning of the destruction of a way of life, and others who see it as a beacon of economic hope for the region.

Exquisitely filmed with arresting cinematography, The Shore Break features original songs by traditional local musician Ntombe Thongo, and sand animation by award-winning animator Justine Puren-Calverley. The almost Kentridgesque animation links sections and propositions in the film, subtly providing context and silent commentary, creating opportunities for the audience to reflect and muse.  The film will have free screenings in the affected area, with decision makers as well as other communities facing similar development struggles.