Citizen Advisory Committee – West Screening “Shored Up” At Next Meeting

“This is a sober look at how seaboards are vulnerable to a rise in ocean levels, made worse by storms and massively worse by massive storms,” noted Daphne Howland of the Village Voice about Ben Kalina’s newest documentary. “Our seemingly innate desire to hang on to disappearing sand, which is essentially what our barrier islands are, is beautifully illustrated by the film’s cinematography and historical footage.”

On Thursday, January 9, The Citizen Advisory Committee-West (CAC-West) will replace its monthly meeting with a free screening of “Shored Up,” a documentary which hits close to home for Hamptons residents.

Kalina’s “Shored Up” begins three years before Superstorm Sandy devastated beach communities across the East Coast. The documentary addresses the climate change controversy, the effects of a rising sea on coastal communities, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ beach replenishment project along the New Jersey shore pre-Sandy. Kalina filmed communities in New Jersey and North Carolina where “politics, economics and science collide.” While so far, the only approach has been beach engineering, Kalina wonders if there are other more effective solutions.

The screening will begin at 7 p.m., at the Westhampton Free Library ( 7 Library Avenue, Westhampton Beach, 631-288-3335, www.westhamptonlibrary.net).