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RT06042015

for breaking news visit www.timesnewsweekly.com june 4, 2015 • times 31 58 The Queens Courier • Buzz • JUNE 4, 2015 FoR BReakING NewS vISIT www.queenscourier.com VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS vschneps@gmail.com It was a disappointment to me that I missed the Queens Film Festival a few weeks ago. Our newspapers were the media sponsors and it had been a great success. So when I got an invitation to attend the Hoboken International Film Festival and see the premiere of my friend’s film “Price for Freedom,” I quickly said yes. As it turns out, the International Film Festival that runs for seven days had to be moved a few years ago when Hoboken was literally under water and the theater it used was closed. Fortunately, the producer had friends in the unlikely place of upstate Middletown, New York, about two hours away without much traffic. There, a city-owned majestic historic theater and town were being revitalized and the Orange County executive and mayor Film premiere of Middletown were delighted to sign a multi-year contract and move the international festival to their town and the recently restored 1,100-seat Paramount Theatre. Friday, I was off to Middletown, leaving extra time, knowing the route to the Catskills is loaded on a weekend night with people heading out of town. I was right! We got there in two and half hours and were delighted to see the impressive renovated theater. A filmmaker’s red carpet reception for the opening night of “Price for Freedom” brought us there a few hours before the film would be shown and when I entered the lobby and saw my friend Roger Cooper, who was one of the producers, my mouth dropped. Standing next to him was a man I knew – the subject of the movie, Dr. Marc Benhuri. He is a dentist who had written a book about his experiences as the Jewish dentist to the Shah. Ironically, a few years ago, I had heard this story from the man himself because I had honored his stunning and talented wife, Yana Benhuri, who is a dress designer, as a Top Woman in Business in Brooklyn. Never did I suspect Dr. Benhuri was the subject of the movie. He had told me about the book he had written about his life in Iran. When the Shah left Iran, he and his family and friends were terrorized after the 1979 coup and the country came into the grip of the Ayatollah Khomeini. His story is one of courage, helping his people flee. Life weaves a strange web as there in the lobby of the Paramount Theatre were he and his wife and their family and my friend Sal Cumella who had introduced me to them. His autobiography had become the basis of the movie receiving its premiere Dr. Marc Benhuri with his wife Yana at the movie premiere Jungle Bob and the General Dynamic for all the news 24 hours, 7 days a week DENTAL go WORK to www.timesnewsweekly.com 175-15 Jamaica avenue, Jamaica 718-297-4100 • 718-297-4106 that night! A bonus for me was to meet Paul Sorvino who starred as the Shah of Iran in the movie and was receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The multi-talented Sorvino, who may best be remembered for his part in “Goodfellas,” is both a brilliant actor, working endlessly on his craft as he said in his acceptance remarks, and also an accomplished, successful sculptor. His performance added to the power of the movie. It’s a stunning and shocking portrayal of Dr. Benhuri’s life and will be shown around the city and at the Gold Coast Theatre in Great Neck over the next few months. It should not be missed. It’s a gripping story set during the devastating time of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran’s history; ironically, it is so timely now based on our country’s current relations with Iran. victoria’s secrets tweet me @vschneps Free Whitening included Some excluSionS Apply the inViSiBle WAy to StrAighten teeth third generation dentist $1000 off Lumineers $500 off Invisalign Jungle Bob has us wrapped up by a Burmese python From being wrapped up in a movie one night to being wrapped up by a python on Saturday, life continues to be interesting! Saturday morning I brought my grandsons Blake and Jonah to the Pet expo at Nassau Coliseum to meet the stars of “Tanked,” a TV show, featuring a family that builds aquariums. It’s Blake’s favorite. Jonah loves turtles and fortuitously we met Jungle Bob who specializes in reptiles. My friend Rhona knows the General, who is the patriarch of the “Tanked” family, so we headed to his booth to get some autographed T-shirts and shake his hand. I think Blake was duly impressed. But we soon met another vendor, Jungle Bob, who is a self-taught expert on all forms of reptiles with a shop in Centereach, Long Island. Since Jonah wanted to learn more about turtles, we had time to chat with the expert and find out they are not such friendly pets. In the process we did get to “meet” other members of the reptile family. I even got wrapped up in a python snake that was surprisingly heavy. I don’t know how my screeches didn’t frighten the massive being into attacking me, but it just quietly lay on me! They even put a tarantula on my collar and the boys loved seeing me squiggle. What a grandmother will do for her kids! And then I was off on Sunday to a winning Mets ballgame. I love taking my older grandchildren with the younger ones. The big ones are so loving with the little ones. They are truly my treasures. Roger Cooper and Paul Sorvino The General of “Tanked” signing autographs At the Mets with my four grandchildren


RT06042015
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