Your Friends & Neighbors

He Won’t Let Us Forget

Will the heroes of Superstorm Sandy a decade ago—or 9/11 before that— be lost to memory? Not if this documentary filmmaker can help it.

For the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, our county unveiled The Jersey Storm: Sandy in Monmouth County, a documentary directed by Emmy Award winner and Asbury Park resident Adam Worth, with interviews and never-beforeseen footage. A 43-year-old county native, Worth lived through Sandy and was one of the lucky ones, losing his power for two weeks, but not his home or his life. The 2002 Monmouth University graduate works as a filmmaker and director at Cine Selector, an Asbury Park-based video production company.

Why a documentary about Superstorm Sandy?

A lot of local heroes and stories came out of Sandy that a lot of us who live here have heard anecdotally. But the project was really the brainchild of Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon. I have to give her credit for taking the bold step to preserve county records in this new way.

What impressed you most about how New Jersey handled this disaster?

Monmouth County, despite all the damage, didn’t experience any fatalities, and a lot of that was due to the county Office of Emergency Management as well as the Sheriff’s Office and Shaun Golden. He’s the current Monmouth County sheriff and was sheriff during Sandy. His office and the volunteer emergency responders saved a lot of lives.

What acts of kindness did you see come out of the storm?

I spent time traveling around in the back of a UHaul with a group of kids who were distributing meals to people working outside of homes. That’s one of the ways I saw the community coming together to help each other.

What are a few highlights of the film?

The leadup to the storm, the evacuation and shelter efforts, the aftermath and the damages, the volunteer efforts and the organizations that sprang up to assist those in need.

How has Sandy changed the county’s landscape?

Union Beach Mayor Charles Cucuzza talked about how before Sandy, there used to be small bungalow cottages on the Shore, and now there are elevated three-story mansions. Generations of families were living in small bungalows. When things were rebuilt, those people could not necessarily afford to come back.

What would you like viewers to draw from your work?

The thing that most excites me is the idea that this film will be shown to Monmouth County schoolchildren so that future generations will learn the stories of the heroes of Sandy.

Where can people watch The Jersey Storm?

If they search on YouTube for “The Jersey Storm: Sandy in Monmouth County,” it’s on the Monmouth County clerk’s YouTube channel.

You also did a 9/11 documentary. Why is this footage still relevant?

We talked about the county response. The commuter ferries were turned into rescue vehicles to ferry commuters stranded at Ground Zero back to Monmouth County. The clerk’s office and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office provided footage. My parents were in Manhattan on 9/11, and upon reviewing all the footage, I was able to find a shot of them returning to Monmouth on the ferry. It definitely hits home when you see your own family coming off the boat from Ground Zero.

Filmmaking is a tough field to break into. How did you get your start?

I started as a filmmaker when I was a pizza delivery guy. I would deliver pizza to the TV control room at Monmouth Park Racetrack. There was a director there named Joe Montana—no relation to the quarterback. I asked him every Friday with a pizza in my hand if he wanted to hire me as a camera guy. On the third summer he gave me my first job. That’s three summers of trying to convince him I knew what I was doing even though I didn’t. It led to a job at MSNBC in 2006—and pretty much everything.

You’ve won several New York Emmys, including one a few weeks ago. What is the common thread to your work?

I hate the term storyteller; I feel it’s a cliché. The thread is telling the stories of people in New Jersey, though I’ve done work all over the country.

Haven’t you also worked as a deejay, winning second place in the Video DJ World Championship in 2016?

As I was trying to build a career in documentary, I was moonlighting as a DJ in Asbury Park. I do video DJing. I still do it at a few bars in Asbury Park. My Instagram is @atomworth. —Donna Rolando