Film about beach communities, coastal development and storms screens Oct 30, La Grua Center

SHORED UP is a new documentary about the development of coastal regions by beach communities along the Atlantic Ocean, and what might happen if a large storm appeared. The film was 95% done, when Sandy hit. Ben Kalina, a Pennsylvania based filmmaker then went out shooting again, and focused on the New Jersey and North Carolina shores.

See film trailer here

Cleanup efforts in devastated areas where populations had a higher income were seemingly attended to first. Shifting sands were bulldozed back to beaches and retaining walls constructed, but was this happening in areas where higher income brackets were pressuring local and Federal governments to quicken the clean up?  Other less economically fortunate communities were left to their own devices and neighbors helping neighbors.

Besides the political aspects of a storm aftermath, the film suggests these communities should not have been built in the first place. Coastal regions have been subjected to storms throughout history, and a large storm can change and even remove the shores celebrated by beach inhabitants.

Suzanne (Tumicki) Harle, a Norwich CT native now living near San Francisco CA is the founder of an nonprofit environmental film distribution organization called Green Planet Films. She saw Shored Up at a film festival and thought of her own experiences on the beaches of CT and RI while growing up, and followed Patch to read Sandy updates around the southeastern states since she has family there. Her mother Peg Tumicki evacuated Stonington Borough during Sandy, and Harle herself was local the year before when Irene hit, and she too had to evacuate for 4 days, mainly due to power outages.

On October 30, 2013, almost a year to the day of Sandy hitting the local beaches, the film Shored Up will be presented by Green Planet Films and the La Grua Center in Stonington CT.  6-8 pm