Greenpeace Berkshire presents Wild Coast Warriors + Q&A

As part of Reading International Festival, Greenpeace Berkshire presents a special screening of Wild Coast Warriors, including post-film Q&A with Executive Producer Gary Janks.



For centuries, indigenous people lived sustainably while resisting invaders on South Africa's Wild Coast, and recently in a David and Goliath court-room battle against Shell, these communities succeeded in halting oil/gas exploration, winning ongoing protection for their ocean and culture.



This film celebrates and pays tribute to the AmaMpondo for their outstanding and historic, legal victory over Shell, Impact Oil and Gas (Impact Africa) and the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources in South Africa. The story is constructed as an almighty existential clash of cultures.



The AmaMpondo protagonists, conserving nature, their way of life and their very existence, battle the oil giants and the Minister of Energy antagonists, their profit-driven fossil fuel exploration that could potentially destroy marine life and indigenous culture. This leads to a climactic courtroom ruling that might help influence the direction of travel for the next few years that humanity has left to drastically reduce carbon emissions and prevent a burning planet and biodiversity loss.



We are passionate about giving unheard indigenous people a voice as the true conservators of their natural world. We invite global viewers to meet these people and judge for themselves. We see the AmaMpondo's lived experience, maintaining responsible stewardship of ancestral lands and sacred seas, a symbiotic relationship that supports flourishing land and marine biodiversity, counterpointed with Shell's capitalist arguments. We aim to demonstrate how by combining cultural heritage, indigenous wisdom, human rights activism, and environmental campaigning with litigation, can be a powerful means to tackle climate catastrophe, biodiversity degradation, and an attack on human rights.

We want to inspire youth and other indigenous communities globally to rise up to protect their lands and oceans and seek justice.