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HERALD BEACON
Ribbon cut on ‘MammoVan’
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Sands pulls plug on casino bid Multiple market forces cited as reason to halt $6B project at Coliseum site across the 72-acre site. “I’m elated, absolutely elated that it appears this casino will Las Vegas Sands will no lon- not go forward,” said Pearl ger pursue its $6 billion proposal Jacobs, of Uniondale, a member to build a casino resort at the of the Say No to the Casino Civic Nassau Coliseum site in Union- Association and president of the dale, prompting the project’s Nostrand Gardens Civic Associaopponents to release a huge sigh tion. “It was bad idea from the of relief. start,” Jacobs said, The Sands has a d d i n g t h at s h e decided against opposes having such applying in June for a venue in close one of three availproximity to young able downstate gampeople — with the ing licenses in New site near Hofstra York. In a statement, U n i v e r s i t y, t h e Sands officials said Hempstead and t h a t wh i l e t h e y Uniondale school “strongly believe in districts, and a few the development PEARL JAcOBS charter schools. opportunity of a Say No to the Casino “A casino at that land-based down- Civic Association location was a horristate casino license member ble idea,” she said, in New York,” they also noting the high cited a range of mardensity of traffic and the impact ket forces, including the rise of online gambling, economic of air pollution on the communiuncertainty in the United States ties. Jacobs added that casinos and a strategic shift to preserve shareholder value as reasons for negatively impact property values, with the potential of deflatpulling out. The proposal included a ing prices of nearby homes by 2 400,000-square-foot casino, hotels, to 10 percent, according to the restaurants, retail space and a National Association of Realtors. On April 24, Nassau County convention center, with the expectation of creating more Legislator Seth Koslow sent a than 8,500 construction jobs and cease-and-desist letter to County over 5,000 permanent positions CoNtiNUeD oN page 4
By KELSIE RADZISKI
kradziski@liherald.com
Courtesy Crystal Harris
Nataly De Leon, far left, Jenifer Hernandez, Jasmine Jones and Crystal Harris have worked together to create several documentaries, as well as this year’s Uniondale High School Film Festival.
A red carpet for student film fest
Screenwriting class moves seniors to bring stories to life By JOSEPH D’ALESSANDRO jdalessandro@liherald.com
Decorated with a Hollywood-like red carpet, the high school auditorium hosted this year’s Uniondale High School Film Festival, where members of the school’s screenwriting class introduced nine documentaries made by students who saw their creations come to life on the big screen. The April 23 event, titled “Perspectives: An Unfiltered Documentary Experience,” presented the shared themes of the students’ work: unique life stories, lived experiences and personal journeys. The class of 24 seniors filmed the documentaries as a part of their elective screenwriting class, created and taught by Crystal Harris, an English and screenwriting teacher at the high school. “I had just come from a couple of film fes-
tivals back in 2019, and I learned so much from those film festivals,” Harris recalled. “I really wanted to bring that information back to my school district.” Harris’s class focuses on the core skills of screenwriting: how to put together a script using professional software, how to market and distribute it, and how to record and edit a documentary. Each one screened at the festival was roughly five minutes long, with footage taken by the students as well as their own voice-overs. The assignment was to create a short film that told the story of a real person. “They were asked to identify someone in their life or community who had an interesting or meaningful story,” Harris said. “Once they put it all together, the results were just amazing.” Nataly De Leon already had a passion for writing, and recently branched out into filmCoNtiNUeD oN page 17
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casino at that location was a horrible idea.