South African documentary The Shore Break will feature at the Hot
Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which runs from 23 April to 15
May in Toronto.
The documentary follows two cousins from the Wild Coast whose opposing plans on
how to develop their land divide their community, with ripple effects to their Pondo
monarchy and the South African Government.
According to The Shore Break’s director and co-producer Ryley
Grunenwald, “It’s perfect that Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary
festival, will be the film’s North American premiere.” The film will be presented in
the World Showcase programme, which is the festival’s immensely popular survey
of the year’s finest non-fiction films from around the world.
In 2012 The Shore Break was pitched at the Hot Docs Forum and the
following year was awarded completion funds from the Hot Docs – Blue Ice Group
Documentary Fund. According to co-producer Odette Geldenhuys, “It is a real
honour to be part of the Hot Docs 2015 line-up, a film festival where I have learnt
so much about the beautiful art of documentary filmmaking.”
The Shore Break is currently on the festival circuit having screened in
The Netherlands and France with Belgium being its next stop. It recently won Best
Feature Length Documentary at FIFE in Paris.
