HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — A High Point Native and New York University film student is making a short documentary on Western North Carolina.
Her goal is to raise awareness of the destruction left behind in western North Carolina nearly three months after Hurricane Helene hit.
Caroline Griffith, 20, is a sophomore majoring in film, TV production and psychology at NYU.
She went to western North Carolina on Thanksgiving to capture resilient communities working to recover months after that storm.
“I hope that the documentary will invoke a sense of urgency in people and awareness of how much work there is to be done,” Griffith said.
While it’s for an assignment for a documentary production class, she has another goal. She wants to shine a light on the vast destruction Hurricane Helene left in several communities in that region.
“Seeing it in real life, it’s a different feeling … As hard as I try to portray that with my camera … I can’t really grasp the nature of what it feels like to be standing right there, but I can try,” Griffith said.
It’s an area she is familiar with.
“I know a lot of people who live there and were struggling,” Griffith said.
She visited several areas severely damaged by the storm.
“Worse than I could have imagined, and you really kind of have to see it to believe it, and I think that people just really don’t understand … how significant the damage and the hurt is up there,” Griffith said.
“I spent a lot of time in Marshall, North Carolina, and they have a great community there, are working extremely, extremely hard to rebuild, and they just have a really great attitude about it,” Griffith said.
She interviewed a family. They shared the heartache felt this holiday season about still seeing lingering devastation near their homes.
They also spoke about their resilience as they rebuild their communities.
Griffith says the 10-minute-long short documentary will be complete in January.
She plans to submit it to local film festivals. She hopes the short film will encourage more people to help the region recover and rebuild.
