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May 14-May 20, 2021
Queens World Film Festival salutes Elmhurst
Hospital workers with ‘Spirit of Queens Award’
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
As a salute to Elmhurst
Hospital workers, Queens
World Film Festival (QWFF)
dedicated this year’s “Spirit
of Queens Award” to the entire
hospital workforce for its
unwavering and heroic dedication
to its patients amid the
COVID-19 pandemic during a
ceremony on May 10.
The award ceremony also
served as a kickoff event for
Nurses Week activities.
Queens World, which
MovieMaker Magazine said is
among the top 50 film festivals
in the world, is giving a standing
ovation to Elmhurst’s 5,997
employees in the form of a
complimentary all-access festival
pass.
“We are so excited about
this,” Queens World Executive
Director Katha Cato said during
the ceremony outside of
Elmhurst Hospital.
“We will be bringing the
world to Queens and Queens
to the world,” Cato said. “You
know, we found out something
in the pandemic. We found out
what was really essential —
people who go to work. People
who push a broom. People who
make a bed.”
Community members
can purchase the “Heroes of
Elmhurst” tickets for $10 each
for Elmhurst’s health professionals.
Thetickets typically
cost $150 but were deeply discounted
Katho Cato (l.) poses with volunteers at the Queens World Film Festival salute for Elmhurst Hospital
staff. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
by the streaming platform
Film Festival Flix, which
is also donating 33 percent of
the gross heroes ticket sales to
Elmhurst Hospital.
The tickets provide unlimited
access to all virtual
screenings and can be found at
queensworldfilmfestival.org.
Additionally, Queens World
will curate blocs of short films
accessible to patients and staff
on the hospital’s intra-web as a
“Movies on the Menu” screening
series for an entire year.
Elmhurst Hospital was the
“epicenter of the epicenter”
at the height of the pandemic,
and Cato, who lives near the
hospital with her husband,
artist and director Preston
Cato, recalled the early days of
the pandemic.
“When we would go to eat,
not really realizing the danger
that we were putting you in to
reach for your hand to thank
you. You involuntarily kind
of backed off but then gave me
your hand. What an incredibly
heroic act that was,” Cato
said. “We did not know in the
opening moments what we
were in for. Every system that
we have had has been rattled
and broken, and some of them
justifiably so. But the system
that could not be broken was
Elmhurst Hospital.”
Elmhurst Hospital CEO
Helen Arteaga Landaverde
pointed out that this week is
Nurses Week and described
nurses as the “quiet soldiers
who hold our hands when we
are scared.”
Landaverde thanked
Queens World for honoring the
hospital employees and giving
them the tremendous gift of an
all-access pass.
“Because as many of you
know whether you watch a
movie, or watch a film via
streaming, via the TV, via
your phone or your iPad, film
takes our stories and makes
them real,” Landaverde said.
“Film makes us imagine the
impossible, and the fact that
the Queen’s Festival is filming
our story and telling our story
or part of our story is a huge
honor, and I couldn’t be any
more grateful to them.”
Chief Nursing Officer
Joann Gull, who oversees
1,600 nurses, said it was a
great honor that the festival
was dedicated to their heroic
staff, especially during Nurses
Week.
“Our staff played many
roles during the pandemic.
They were caregivers, handholders,
substitute families
and healers, and we became
together ‘Elmhurst Strong,'”
Joann Gull, who recently celebrated
50 years at Elmhurst,
said. “I thank you for this
honor and for providing every
staff member a complimentary
full festival all-access pass.”
Read more on QNS.com.
Vol. 9 No. 20 32 total pages
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