Bates to screen ‘Shored Up,’ exploring the shoreline’s fate in the age of climate change

Described by The New York Times as “a thought-provoking documentary about the folly of shoreline construction in the Hurricane Sandy age,” the 2013 film Shored Up will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, May 19, in Room G52, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Presented at Bates by the film’s director, Ben Kalina, the screening is open to the public at no cost.

The event is sponsored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships; the departments of geology, biology, economics and politics; the Program in Environmental Studies and the Division of Social Sciences; and the Purposeful Work Initiative at Bates.

For more information, please call 207-786-6400.

Shored Up asks tough questions about our coastal communities and our relationship to the land. What will a rising sea do to our homes, our businesses and the survival of our communities? Can we afford to pile enough sand on our shores to keep the ocean at bay?

In Long Beach Island, N.J., and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, surfers, politicians, scientists and residents are racing to answer these questions. The film explores the political conflicts and personal stakes of communities along the shore, talking with scientists, politicians, residents and a wide range of experts to expose major shortcomings in coastal management and the immediate need for change.

Filmed over three years and culminating in the impact of Hurricane Sandy, the film becomes an eerie foretelling of the storm’s devastation and a witness to its dramatic aftermath. Shored Up is a look at what happens when we ignore the realities of geology in our drive to inhabit and profit from our coastlines.