Sandy Documentary Premieres at OCC

By Gabrielle Gillen    

On Sunday, Oct. 26, The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts will host the premiere screening of “Heartbreak & Healing After Sandy,” a documentary film chronicling the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. The film focuses on the physical, emotional, and financial impacts that have occurred as a result of the storm, and continue today, nearly two years later. Through first-hand accounts from survivors, first responders, government officials, and volunteers, viewers will see just how greatly certain areas of the Jersey Shore were affected by the storm. “Heartbreak & Healing After Sandy” is a one-hour documentary, produced and narrated by New Jersey native, Sandra Levine.

    Sandra Levine has worked in television for over 30 years, and is a producer, writer, reporter, host, editor and photojournalist. In 1996, she founded her own television and video production company, and has dedicated her talents to positively impacting society. Levine worked at NJN Public Television from 1988 to 2011, and she was the host of both NJN’s “Homeless Tails” and “The Best Years” for Ocean County College's Ocean TV-20. Throughout her career, Levine has been nominated for 10 regional Emmy Awards, and has received numerous other awards and honors. Levine recently spoke with The Viking News to talk about her upcoming documentary.

Viking News: What inspired you to make the “Heartbreak & Healing” After Sandy documentary?

Sandra Levine: I was born and raised in Toms River. My family moved here in 1956 and this is my hometown. My husband and I live in Toms River and we’re raising our daughter in the same neighborhood where I grew up, so I am very personally tied to this area. When I find a story to be fascinating, I often feel compelled to go out and do something about it and there were so many reasons I felt compelled to do this one. It’s my hometown, my father’s house flooded, and I know a lot of friends, family, colleagues, and members of the community who were just devastated by the storm. Once I started to go out and shoot and see the damage, I got hooked by the story. There was no turning back.

VN: What has it been like working on this film for the past two years?

SL: It’s been incredible. I just started shooting when it was all happening and I really didn’t know what I was going to do with the footage. I just had to do it; I had to cover some stories. I just shot and shot and shot, and I didn’t know how it was all going to come together. Once I made the decision that I wanted to cover more or less two years, I kind of had to keep shooting. I wanted it to be about two years and that’s what it ended up being.

VN: Was there a particular story that you came across that had the biggest impact on you?

SL: I met this older gentleman. Just watching him navigate the bureaucracy of figuring out what to do really hit me hard, and I worried that the stress of dealing with it would actually kill him. Before I put him in the documentary, I called to make sure he was okay and I couldn’t reach him by his phone, so I actually drove to his house to make sure he was okay. That one man really touched me.

VN: In your opinion, which area has made the most progress and which area is still in need of the most work?

SL: I focused on five towns in Northern Ocean County: Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach, Mantoloking, Brick Township, and Toms River. I didn’t want to just do the beach so I picked a couple mainland towns and beach towns. Mantoloking was one of the hardest hit communities, and it took a long time to get started with recovery, but it’s coming along. Ortley too, and Seaside; there is just one unbelievable story after another. I describe it as an uneven recovery.

VN: Did you face any difficulties or obstacles that inhibited you from making your film?

SL: My biggest challenge was stopping shooting. You had to really slow down and stop the shooting in order to sit down, take stock of all the footage that you have, and try to start making a story out of it. I think that was probably the hardest part. Having 84 hours, or however many it ended up being, of footage and having to plow through it and make sense out of it. There were a lot of good stories in there and I couldn’t use them all, so it’s just making the decisions about which ones to put in and which ones to not. That was very hard.

VN: When tragedy strikes, we often witness people coming together to help each other with a sense of camaraderie and empathy. Did you find that to be the case in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy?

SL:  I absolutely found people coming in droves to help, of course, in the beginning. The thing is, people who weren’t affected, within a very short amount of time, were ready to move on from the Sandy story. And that’s normal. But the stories are ongoing of people who maybe now, at two years, are just really starting to gut their houses or are still waiting for insurance money. And that is very hard for people to go through. I have a lot of empathy for the people that are not made whole yet, and there are thousands and thousands of them. So I tried, in the documentary, to convey the tone that we’re on our way and things are moving along, but there are still many people who are not where they need to be and still need help.

VN: What do you think is the most important lesson to be learned from this tragedy?

SL: I interviewed Dave Robinson, a New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University, and he talked about the fact that sea level is definitely rising. He explained to me that, yes, this was a terrible storm, but it is in no way the worst that Mother Nature can deliver. As sea level has been rising, the same degree of strength of a storm is causing more damage, and it’s probably not going to get better, not just for New Jersey but also globally. This is definitely an issue that we will have to grapple with now, and in the future, and we need to be prepared.

VN: Throughout your career, how does this compare to your previous projects? Was it was one of your most memorable?

SL: I think it’s the most important film that I’ve ever created. It’s also the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. This project had the most footage over the longest amount of time that I’ve ever done, and it’s probably the most important piece to me, personally, that I’ve ever worked on. I’m pretty proud of the way that it came out, and I hope that the community finds it to be a meaningful piece.

    The premiere screening of Sandra Levine’s “Heartbreak & Healing After Sandy” will take place on Sunday, Oct. 26, in the Grunin Center, Bldg. 12. There are two showings, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., however the 2 p.m. show has sold out. Tickets for the 6 p.m. show can be purchased either online at tickets.ocean.edu, or at the Box Office. For more information, check the website or call 732-255-0500. If attending, non-perishable food item donations will be collected for The People’s Pantry, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library will host a screening of “Heartbreak & Healing After Sandy,” on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. Register by calling 732-349-6200. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the premiere of this powerful film, documenting the storm that so greatly impacted the lives of many!