This Time Next Year

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast. Eighteen miles long, and only a few blocks wide, New Jersey’s fragile Long Beach Island (LBI) was hit especially hard. This Time Next Year follows the community for the crucial first year following the storm as families attempt to rebuild their homes, business and lives.

Home to about 10,000 year-round residents, LBI’s population swells in the summer months as vacationers from across the country flock to one of the last remaining of New Jersey’s classic family-friendly beach playgrounds. But in the face of rising sea levels, many residents wonder if it’s worth rebuilding in such a vulnerable place at all. Meanwhile, others re-affirm their commitment to living by the sea and work to reclaim the LBI that they’ve known and loved their whole lives.

This Time Next Year is a poetic documentation of a shore community coping with personal loss and finding hope face of transition. What emerges is a portrait of community grown stronger and more hopeful in the face of massive transition.