THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 9, 2004, Updated 11:15 A.M. E.S.T.: Eyde McCarthy, City Assessor, advised the City School District Monday that the city total of accessed value has risen to $307,076,646, $2,358,187 higher than the $304,718,459 the city had originally reported as the 2004 accessed value to the School District on February 27.

The error, according to the Assistant Superintendent for Business for the City School District, Terrance Schruers, occured because certain exemptions from city taxes did not extend to exempting certain properties from school taxes, allowing the school district to collect tax on those properties while the city cannot.

 

 

The effect, Schruers said, lowers the projected increase in school taxes for residents from a projected $29.50 per $1,000 of accessed value to $26 per $1,000 of accessed value. For the owner of a home accessed at $15,000, this means a year-to-year school tax increase of  $390 on top of last year’s bill. Last year’s tax rate was $349.03  and this year it goes up, according to the latest total assessibles, to $375 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Going in to the public presentation of the school budget on March 22 at Education House at 7:30 P.M., the district now projects a 6.89% increase, year-to-year in the budget, coming in at $143,910,784, with the new city assessed value dictating a Tax Rate of 7.62%, 2.23% of it attributed to yesterday’s Assessment/PILOT changes.

2.23% Increase Comes from Assessible Settlements.

According to a table released by Mr. Schruers, if the School District budget remained at the $134,632,632 figure of 2003-004, the school tax would have to increase 2.23% to make up the $2,395,516 in lost revenues from the falloff in assessible values citywide.

Of the $26 year to year increase in the tax rate, $7.80  represents the 2.23% increase in tax rate is attributible to the loss in assessibles. The$18.20 balance of the $26/$1,000 increase is to meet the $9,278,152 rise in the School Budget, from wage increases, pension increases and institution of All Day Kindergarten districtwide.

The new figures released Monday to the School District report the increase in PILOT (Payments In Lieu of Taxes) payments to the city in 2004 as $4,856,650, which reduce the Net Reduction in Assessibles in the city to $6,863,353.

Assessible Declines Permanent, School District Counsel Present at Assessment Settlement Proceedings.

Asked if the $6,863,353 decline in assessibles was a one-time only charge, Schreurs said it was his understanding they were permanent reductions on the tax roll.

Schreurs said that the school board had previously accepted the reassessments and settlements presented them by the city, prompted by Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors visit to the Mayor February 27,  with one exception.

The Nordstrom Department Store lowering of assessment by $1.2 Million has yet to be accepted by the Board of Education, Schreurs said.

Schreurs added that the assessments lowered by the state the Board had no say in, while School Board counsel does sit in on discussions the city has with corporations seeking lowered assessments, and either recommends or rejects the settlement suggestion.

 

WPCNR SCREEN GEMS.  By Sunset Boulevard & Westchester County Deparment of Communications.(EDITED) March 8, 2004:

Movie buffs, those of you who want to be in pictures, make pictures, it can happen to you.

 Jimmy Hollywood just made it!

Westchester’s Fifth Annual Film Festival moves to the City Center National Amusements Cinema De Lux this week, leading off its Saturday Matinee Schedule with the long-awaited, festival-impressive, Intervention, from Morricone’s Comprehensive Films,  produced  in 2002 around  White Plains, The Bronx and Queens by White Plains own James Morricone, (better known as “Jimmy Hollywood”).

 

WHITE PLAINS JIMMY MORRICONE with his leads, Carla Fulco, left and Joe De Vito on location in White Plains, September, 2002. Photo by WPCNR Hollywood Archives.

 

 

The full-length film was premiered March 4 in Manhattan at Robert De Niro’s personal screening, praised as “a good story” by critic at large, Steve Morton, who was invited to the private screening. Intervention will be shown commercially in White Plains for the first time Saturday. The film stars Magnotta’s Mary Fulco’s daughter, Carla Fulco, the “Catherine Deneuve of the 21st Century” as leading lady in a moody, realistic Italian-American love story set in the 1950s.

THE STAR FROM MAGNOTTA’S:  Carla Fulco,  the daughter of Mary Fulco, a fixture at Magnotta’s Restaurant in White Plains, makes her film debut in Intervention Saturday Afternoon. In this still from the production, Carla is arguing with her movie parents. Photo, Courtesy, Comprehensive Films.

 

 Beginning Thursday from 2 P.M. to 10 P.M., The WFF will offer Jimmy’s movie, plus a line-up of 25 films from around the globe – spotlighting jump-out-and-grab-you movies filmed in New Zealand, Romania, France, Peru and India; giving an insider’s view of life in poverty-stricken Iran; and detailing the struggles of Irish, Chinese and Latino immigrants in the New York area.

 

LISTEN, SWEETHEART. GIVE ME YOUR MOTIVATION: Anton Evangelista of Comprehensive Films, Directing Carla Fulco in Intervention on a shoot in North White Plains November, 2002. See Carla on the big screen at City Center. Saturday matinee. For more on Intervention, go to Comprehensive Films website at www.comprehensivefilms.com  Photo from WPCNR Hollwood Archives.

This year’s Westchester Film Festival event, co-sponsored by Westchester County and Cappelli Enterprises Inc., is a three-day affair running March 11-13 that will also spotlight the county’s newest theatres: National Amusement’s Cinema de Lux at City Center in White Plains. Films will run back-to-back each day from 2 p.m. to about 10 p.m.

 

See How Salma Hayek Cuts It as a Director on Friday Night: The Maldonado Miracle.

 

A major highlight, other than the original White Plains production of Intervention  will be a free Friday night showing of The Maldonado Miracle, Salma Hayek’s directorial debut starring Peter Fonda and Mare Winningham. Shown at 7 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis,  the Emmy-nominated movie tells the story of a mysterious Mexican boy who creates a media sensation when he brings a “miracle” to a desolate and dying town. A “Meet the Filmmaker” session will follow where the audience can meet the producer, Chappaqua resident Eve Silverman (a four-time Emmy Award winner).

 

 

            A charming family film, Her Majesty, will close the festival with an 8 p.m. Saturday showing. Filmed entirely in New Zealand, the movie is a coming-of-age story of a young girl who realizes her lifelong dream when Queen Elizabeth comes to visit her small hometown. The film has already won three New Zealand film awards and was the first runner-up for Best Film in both Seattle and Cleveland.

 

Magic Carpet Rides

 

            Four short Iranian movies will make their Western debut in Westchester. All give an insider’s glimpse of life inside Iran and the challenges posed by poverty and the Iran-Iraq war. Two other films are in Spanish, one of which – On the Fringes – hits particularly close to home by looking at the lives of Hispanics living in Westchester.

Other newly announced films will include:

 

• Stuff That Bear! A student film directed by a young Bruno Coppola, a family member of Francis Ford Coppola, includes cameos of the better known Coppolas, including Francis Ford and recent Oscar-winner Sofia. The film won in the Kodak European Showcase for New Talent at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Having already screened in festivals in Romania, England, Denver, San Francisco and Durango, this will be its East Coast premiere.

 

•  Out of the Pan into the Fire. A noted New York chef shows the audience what it’s really like to work behind the scenes of a top NYC restaurant.

 

• Beautiful Kid stars best-selling author Frank McCourt, author of “Angela’s Ashes.” This look at Irish-Americans in the Bronx was shot on a beer budget by Irish novelist Colum McCann and first-time screenwriter Michael Carty

 FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Thursday, March 11

 

Screenings for all films begin daily at 2 p.m:

 

CASTING ADRIFT –  Feature. Out-of-work soap opera stars get a shot at fame and fortune – if they can only survive each other’s company. (83 min.)

 

R.I.P: Rest in Peace – France. Short. In a dark room, six men discuss the future of mankind. (6 min.)

 

BEYOND  SILENCE – Iran. Short.  In a bedrock of silence and peace dominating over the house and passing the days of indolence and old age, even the noise of eating an onion at dinner time can be used as an excuse to break the silence.  (16 min.)

 

UNDER THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE – Student Film set in Chinatown. A young Asian boy’s infatuation with an alluring girl has unexpected consequences. (7 min.)

 

NO NAME STEET – Iran. A coin telephone, a street with no name and lovely people.(17 min.)

 

BILLY COLLINS: ON THE ROAD WITH THE AMERICAN POET LAUREATE – Documentary.  Follows the critically acclaimed American poet who packs halls with his amazing wit and funny bone.(60 min.)

 

STUFF THAT BEAR! – Student Film shot in Bucharest. A taxidermist attempts to win the love of a stripper in this wacky comedy, a  Kodak winner at Cannes.  (19 min.)

 

A ROSE FOR MAJNUN – Iran. Leily, a middle-aged woman, earns her living searching for pieces of scrap iron in the streets . She is exposed to all kinds of dangers including rape.  First U.S. screening.  (26 min.)

 

6 p.m. ON THE FRINGES – Documentary.  An examination of the lives of undocumented Latinos living and working in Westchester. (53 min.)

 

8 p.m.  ARTWORKS – Feature  A beautiful married  woman and an art dealer plan the perfect art heist – until love enters the picture. A winner at the California Independent Film Festival. (96 min.)

 

 

Friday, March 12

 

2 p.m.

 

CUGINI  – Feature. A Hollywood star returns to his home of Yonkers, the girl he left behind, and the son he never knew he had. (109 min.)

 

ETERNITY –  France. Jack is in despair until a magic ball flies though time and brings goodness. (9 min.)

 

APNEA – France. While doing an apnea dive, a man lets his imagination wander to the elements that surround us.(4 min.)

 

BEAUTIFUL KID – Feature. An Irish- American auto mechanic in the Bronx finds himself at a crossroads, torn between allegiances to family, friends and love. Starring best-selling author Frank McCourt. (99 min.)

 

THE WOUND OF MY GRANDFATHER– Peru. Documentary. Short. The story of Javier who attempts to produce a documentary about the life of his neighbor’s family. (25 min.)

 

7 p.m.  THE MALDONADO MIRACLE – Feature.  When a mysterious Mexican boy takes refuge in the dying town of San Ramos, a “miracle” occurs which suddenly turns the town into  a media sensation. This screening, courtesy of Showtime Entertainment Inc, will be free of charge to the first 130 people. A Q&A with producer Eve Silverman. will follow the screening. Starring Peter Fonda.

(138 min.)

 

Saturday, March 13

 

2 p.m. INTERVENTION –  Feature.  Italian-American love story set in 1968  shows how fate can sometimes bring about redemption.  (1 hr. 46 mins.)

 

PRISONERS IN PARADISE – Documentary.  Little known story of Italian  P.O.W’s in America during World War II. “Impressive..great war stories and love stories.” – Variety (57 mins.)

 

PECK ON THE CHEEK – India. Feature. A young adopted girl embarks on a perilous journey to find her birth mother in war-torn Sri Lanka. Multiple Festival Winner. (99 mins.)

 

OUT OF THE PAN INTO THE FIRE – Documentary.  A  ‘no holds barred’ look  behind the scenes of  New York City’s top restaurants with chef Tony Burdain, author of ‘Kitchen Confidential’(56 min.)

 

DON’T NOBODY LOVE THE GAME MORE THAN ME  – Short.  Gritty street style frames a Shakespearian joust of words amongst four basketball players about who loves the game most. (9 min.)

 

REX STEELE: NAZI SMASHER  – Student Short. Animation. Indiana Jones has nothing on this swashbuckler! (10 min.)

 

THE LITTLE CAPTAIN –  Iran. Short. Children embracing poverty on the ruins of the Iran-Iraq War, life goes on. First U.S. screening. (16 min.)

 

8 p.m.  HER MAJESTY – Feature.  A young girl dreams of meeting the Queen of England in this coming-of-age  period piece set in New Zealand. Winner: 3 New Zealand Film Awards. Winner: Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival. Winner: Best Live Action Feature, Chicago Family Film Festival.(100 min.)

 

9:45 p.m. GREAT LENGTHS  – Student short. Comedy. Oh the lengths he’ll go to to win the heart of the girl he loves!