A new nonfiction film by Sam Fleischner (Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Wah Do Dem), Jetty
documents two years of the decades-long federal project of installing granite jetties to protect
the Rockaways—a coastal neighborhood of Queens, New York—from the effects of diminishing
beaches. Interspersing footage of the people and machines at work with observations from local
residents about living where the city meets the water, the film is shot on Super 16mm,
accentuating the tactility of all the elements at play: rocks, sand, metal, water, and celluloid.
With subtle sound design featuring a pensive, sometimes playful score by Animal Collective,
Jetty looks with equanimity at human attempts to out-engineer nature as it reflects on the way
that a sense of place informs our lives.