Cover Stories

Meet The Inside Press Contributing Team!

February 25, 2023 by The Inside Press

I hope these pages make it clear that ‘the secret sauce’ to the Inside Press is very much our valued contributors. I knew from the start, to succeed, I’d need editor/contributor relationships to offer a regular roster of compelling voices whose professional work I could also rely on. Over the years, so many wonderfully talented individuals have approached me to help me produce all ‘the Creative’. I had just the right space available here to bring out ‘the faces’ and descriptors of the individuals who have been part of our team over the last two years, to paint the picture. Please know I’m forever grateful to every past, present and future contributor. – Grace

The Inside Team…

Grace Bennett

Publisher, editor & writer Grace Bennett, proud mom to Anna and Ari, launched Inside Press two decades ago. A child of Holocaust survivors, Grace is a former board, and now advisory board, member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center. She enjoys walking and the arts.

Beth Besen

Beth, a former Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk editor, is a freelance writer and essay coach. She, along with her husband, two children and dogs, called Chappaqua home for 27 years, but they now split their time between Tarrytown, NY and Park City, Utah.

Pamela Brown

Pamela, a resident of Connecticut, is a 20+-year journalist and founder of PMB Writing & Consulting. In her free time, Pamela plays tennis, gardens, cooks, and spends time with her daughter, Alexis, and their dogs, Rafa and Andy.

Cathy Deutsch

Cathy is a freelance writer, essayist, and former restaurant columnist. She is a regular contributor to Inside Press Magazines and to other platforms supporting essay writing. Formerly the owner of Tiger Lily boutique, she is also a private shopping/stylist and closet rehabber.

More Inside Players…

Vicki deVries

Vicki is a local freelance writer/editor and a former adjunct Associate Professor of English (Pace University), Editorial Director for a Manhattan marketing agency, and in-house magazine and book editor for several companies. Vicki has contributed to Inside Press publications since 2009 and enjoys wordsmithing.

Ronni Diamondstein

Ronni is a journalist, photographer and the author of her debut picture book biography “Jackie and the Books She Loved”. She lives in Chappaqua with her dog Maggie Mae. Follow her at www.ronnidiamondstein.com

John Fisher

John joined Inside Press in October 2021 as Director of Business Development to help re-launch Inside Pleasantville & Briarcliff Manor. A long-time resident of Pleasantville, John heads up his own marketing consulting firm, John Fisher & Associates. John’s clients have been concentrated in the fields of health, education & publishing.

Michael Gold

Pleasantville-based writer Michael Gold’s articles have appeared in numerous publications here and abroad. A Queens native, Michael also loves the New York Mets more than can possibly be warranted by their long record of futility. A kidney donor, he regrets he only had one kidney to give to his country.

Pia Haas

Pia is a long-time performer/director and artistic director of academic, community, and regional theatres, including The Theatre Connection at Westchester Community College and The Armonk Players. She was the director of press and public relations at Westchester Broadway Theatre. Pia also writes about the arts and other subjects.

Janine Crowley Haynes

Janine is a freelance writer and author of My Kind of Crazy–Living in a Bipolar World. Her book is used in AP Psych classes and in colleges. She has been a guest speaker for various mental health organizations and has helped raise funds for Silver Hill Hospital.

Ella Ilan

Ella is a frequent contributor to the Inside Press. She is a former attorney who has always had a passion for writing, a knack for editing, and a love of interviewing interesting people. Her favorite pastimes include family time with her husband and kids, reading, cooking, and traveling.

Megan Klein

Megan graduated from Boston University in May 2022 and has found the perfect combination of sports and communications in her job with the Boston Red Sox. In her free time, she freelances for local Boston publications as well as the Inside Press.

Tara Madden

Millwood resident Tara Madden, a graduate of Greeley High School (2017) and Chapman University (2021), is an accounts manager for the Inside Press. She appreciates all the experience she has gained from this opportunity! She loves spending free time outdoors, specifically at the beach or on a hike with her dog!

Donna Mueller

Capturing treasured moments is what fuels Donna Mueller’s soul, and it’s what she does best! Mueller loves photographing events such as Sweet 16’s, Mitzvahs and small Weddings. Despite being a 3x Best of Westchester winner specializing in Family Photography, Donna still considers herself ‘Just a Girl with a Camera’.

Christine Pasqueralle

Christine is a freelance writer, wife and mom of two who makes her home in Hawthorne, NY. She has worked in the marketing and public relations fields. Christine enjoys reading, travel and the arts. She also works part-time at the Briarcliff Manor Public Library.

Stacey Pfeffer

Stacey, a Chappaqua-based freelance writer, lives in a noisy household with her husband, Larry, plus three kids and three dogs. She can be spotted walking her dogs on the North County Trailway or swimming laps at Club Fit. She writes for many regional publications and local businesses.

Lisa Samkoff

Lisa has been The Inside Press contributing Art Director since 2016. It was then she designed and introduced new branding and style formats for the publication. She is a freelance graphic designer and also Founding Partner and Creative Director for the local media collaborative–King Street Creatives.

Jean Sheff

Jean is an award-winning writer, editor, and Pilates instructor. Her local roots are deep. She grew up in Yorktown Heights and raised her daughter in Chappaqua. She writes for a variety of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, and retail. Her Pilates studio, INSPIRE: Personalized Pilates, is in Briarcliff Manor.

Carolyn Simpson

Carolyn has been a professional photographer for over 30 years. She is the owner of Chappaqua-based Doublevision Photographers which specializes in family portraits, lifestyle/corporate headshots, and events.She strives to capture the moment and works closely with clients to create beautiful and natural photos.

Ryan Smith

Ryan is the founder of Play Nice Together, Inc., a full-service digital design agency based in Westchester County. The company serves local businesses with branding, graphic design, website development, website hosting, and systems integration services. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and ballroom dancing.

Nolan Thornton

Nolan is a journalist and screenwriter based in New York’s Hudson Valley. When not writing, he enjoys creating music. He dreams of one day writing his own television show or movie–maybe even based on an original article. More than anything, he enjoys a good story.

Irene Unger

A retired English teacher and now freelance writer, Irene Unger has been living with MS for 24 years. Irene volunteers with the NY Southern Chapter of the MS Society and captains the 2Steppers WalkMS team. She resides in Briarcliff Manor with her husband Geoff, son Ben and dog, Jesse.

Andrew Vitelli

Andrew has been a journalist in Westchester since 2009 and has served as editor of Inside Armonk and as editor-in-chief of The Putnam Examiner and The White Plains Examiner. A Hastings-on-Hudson native, he now lives in White Plains with his wife Zeynep, daughter Zoe, and dog Beasley.

Straight Out of Pleasantville, Ben Cheever’s TV Show About Books

February 25, 2023 by Michael Gold

How Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang charmed newspaper readers, what Irving Berlin, the writer of “God Bless America,” had to do to overcome extreme poverty and become a successful composer, the story of the carnival showman who invented the incubator, saving thousands of premature babies, and a fictional, emotionally scarred psychiatrist who struggles to heal herself comprise a small selection of the book discussions Ben Cheever has featured on his talk show, “About Writing” on Pleasantville Community Television.

The problem with the show is that when you watch the episodes, available on the PCTV76.org web site, you will want to read the books Cheever talks about.

Among the authors Cheever has had on the show are Molly Jong-Fast, Debra Borden, Frank McCourt, and James Kaplan, as well as actors Debra Winger and Rob Lowe, who have also written books. He’s hosted his sister Susan too, who has published memoirs about their family, and biographies of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott, and the poet E.E. Cummings, among other books.

“Authors would do PCTV when their books came out,” Cheever explained. “My pitch to them is that the show will go on the web, so people all over the world can see it.”

When Cheever interviewed Andrew Blauner, editor of The Peanuts Papers – Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & The Gang and the Meaning of Life, Blauner revealed that he managed to meet Schultz and described the cartoonist as “gentle and generous.” With a boyish sparkle in his eyes, Cheever called comic strips “a clandestine joy.”

Cheever, a Pleasantville resident, author of seven books, and editor of a book of his father’s letters, conceived of the show with Herbert Hadad, a well-known essayist and contributing writer for The New York Times, who lived in Pocantico Hills, because he wanted to help people “whose writing I really admired. I was excited to be able to talk to writers about their books,” he said. Hadad and Cheever co-hosted “About Writing” for about a year. When Hadad got a job with the U.S. Department of Justice, Cheever kept on doing the show.

“The world does not take notice when you write a book,” Cheever explained. “I wanted to help people in a way that I didn’t get. It was a long road to be a writer.”

After college, Cheever worked for the Rockland Journal News in Nyack for six years, covering church news, the Orangeburg town government, and the county legislature, then writing feature articles. He moved on to Reader’s Digest, where he worked for more than a decade in multiple roles, including copy editing and editing the condensed book section and the “Life in These United States” and “Laughter is the Best Medicine” sections.

When his father, John, died, Cheever edited his letters for a book. Then he started writing his own books.

“It took me three years to write The Plagiarist,” his first novel, Cheever said. The book was well received, but his third book was rejected by publishers. “It really hurts to get a novel turned down,” he said.

“There are easier ways to make money (than writing). After I couldn’t sell my third novel, I sold cars, and worked at CompUSA, and Borders (the defunct bookstore chain). I was making sandwiches at Cosi. I worked at Nobody Beats the Wiz (an electronics store, now out of business), a Franklin Quest store,” a business management and motivational products company, and even as a security guard for a perfume factory for one nerve-wracking night.

Cheever worked in the service industry for five years and wrote about his experiences in the book, Selling Ben Cheever – Back to Square One in a Service Economy.

He regained his footing as a writer and went on to author two more novels, as well as Strides – Running Through History with An Unlikely Athlete, about his passion for running. Cheever estimated that he has run 70 to 80 marathons. His two sons had a quilt made for him with tee-shirts from several of the marathons he’s run, from Athens and Bordeaux to Philadelphia, New York City and Yonkers.

He also ran a 10K race with almost 800 American soldiers in Iraq during the second Gulf War, on the grounds of Saddam Hussein’s 60-acre vacation estate, converted into a camp for the U.S. Army, enduring temperatures above 100 degrees.

“I love running. I run almost every day,” Cheever said. He runs in Rockefeller State Park, near where he bought his first house.

“The trails are 17 feet across. The park has views of the Palisades.”

As a lover of dogs, Cheever wrote a children’s book, The First Dog, about Adam and Eve and their dog, the first canine to ever live, of course. He devoted one show to service dogs, interviewing a Pace University professor on a pilot program in Pleasantville teaching health professionals about the benefits of these animals.

Cheever’s advice for young writers and readers is this – “The idea that a book is not a success if it doesn’t sell a lot of copies” is wrong, he said. He suggests that writers “make an intimate connection between people who don’t know each other. The magic moments are when you read something that is transportive. Read a really good book and you know you’re not alone.”

His ultimate advice is something he learned from DeWitt Wallace, founder, and editor of Readers’ Digest and a generous philanthropist – the things you will be known for are “the things you have given away.”

To access “About Writing” shows on the web, go to PCTV76.org, click on the “Watch Now” drop down menu, then the “Media Library” tab. Scroll down to “View Content By” on the right-hand side of the screen. Click on “Most Watched – All Time,” which will bring you to Cheever’s show with Rafael Yglesias, discussing his book, A Happy Marriage. Click on “Watch Now” and you will see on the right-hand section of the screen, “More in this Series.”

Spring Gardening: What to Plant & When

February 25, 2023 by Ella Ilan

With spring around the corner, we reached out to some local gardening experts for guidance on what you can plant in your garden that will bloom this spring and summer. Whether you naturally have a “green thumb,” or you are newly interested in growing vegetables or flowers, we have you covered!

Lisa Eichler, a talented garden designer in Westchester County and proprietor of Legarden Designs, recommends using a “sequence of blooms” to keep your garden blooming beautifully all season long. When designing and installing gardens for her clients, Eichler likes to use a mix of evergreens, flowering shrubs, perennials, and annuals to ensure the garden stays aesthetic throughout the season. Annuals need to be planted every year, while perennials are planted once and last for multiple years.

Planting Before the Frost Date

According to Eichler, any planting done before the “frost date” of May 10th is called spring planting and is subject to freezing. Thus, it is best to choose hardy, cool weather flowers, which can be found at your local nursery in late March. In a spring container, Eichler may include pansies, which she loves for their “colorful and happy little faces,” as well as sweet alyssum and hyacinth, both of which have a lovely fragrance. She also recommends nemesia, which come in a wide range of colors, and ranunculus, which has both annual and perennial varieties. If one wants to add daffodils or tulips to an early spring container, these can be purchased already sprouting from the nursery. When these cool weather flowers start to wither by mid-June, they can be pulled from the garden and replaced with summer flowers.

Early flowering perennials, such as phlox, can also be purchased from the nursery and planted in early spring, but they have a limited flowering time, as is the case with most perennials. Some favorite perennials that Eichler loves to use are “creeping Jenny” (botanical name: Lysimachia nummularia), which is a yellow vine that lasts the whole season, and hellebores, known for their rose-like blossoms and green foliage.

Planting After the Frost Date

After May 10th, gardeners can begin their summer planting. Some deer-resistant summer annuals include ageratum and begonias. Eichler also likes to include colorful grasses, commonly known as fountain grass, to add dimension. One of her favorite plants is coleus, which offers lovely foliage.

Trees, Shrubs, and Perennials

Tom Roth of family-owned Roth Nursery, which has been in Armonk since 1948, supplied us with helpful information on flowering bushes and evergreens that can be planted in early spring. Roth has worked at his family business since he was a young man and works alongside his brothers, Carl and Walter, and his son, Tommy Jr.

Some deer-resistant, flowering evergreen shrubs that Roth recommends planting after the ground thaws in early spring include broadleaf evergreens like andromeda, which produce white flowers, P.J.M, which sprout purple flowers, and certain species of holly, like American holly and Dragon Lady Holly, which produce red berries. His recommendations for deciduous flowering shrubs include viburnum and spirea. Boxwoods, while they do not flower, are also a great choice for deer-resistant evergreen shrubs. As for bigger evergreens, Roth suggests Norway spruces, Green Giants, and white spruces.

Perennials that Roth suggests planting in early spring include bleeding hearts, ferns, Russian sage, catmint flowers, and any herbs. He recommends keeping things moist while they get established, which usually takes a season.

Planting Your Own Vegetables

Armonk resident Wendy Rosen of Homegrown Gardens, Inc. designs and builds beautiful vegetable gardens for her clients. Rosen had been in film production for many years when the pandemic hit, slowing the industry significantly. Rosen had her own vegetable garden for 20 years, so curating beautiful gardens for others was a natural next step.

“I needed a new creative outlet and Homegrown Gardens was born,” she said. “Producing a garden is similar to producing a TV commercial; it’s all problem-solving and finding solutions.”

Rosen teams up with carpenters and masons to build enclosures and sets her clients’ gardens up from soup to nuts. She finds it especially rewarding when clients text her pictures of their harvests throughout the year.

“One thing I’ve always loved most about having a garden is sharing our harvest. Most people bring a bottle of red to a dinner party, I bring a squash!” she says.

For spring gardening, Rosen recommends planting cucumber seeds outdoors in mid to late March, carrot seeds in late March, and beans in mid to late April.

For summer gardening, she advises planting peas outdoors in early May and tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, and basil all on Mother’s Day.

For fall gardening, Rosen says fennel seeds can be planted outdoors in late July, radishes and peas in early August, carrots and kale in mid to late August, lettuce in early September, and spinach in mid-September.

Replacing and replanting new vegetable plants ensures a long growing season. Each season, Rosen recommends rotating everything in your garden as each variety takes different nutrients from the soil.

Each of our experts was a treasure trove of information and had plenty more to share. To contact Lisa Eichler, visit her website at legardendesigns.com. Roth Nursery is open to the public and is located at 42 N Greenwich Road in Armonk, phone # (914) 273-8399. To contact Wendy Rosen, visit her website at homegrowngardensinc.com.

Stay Grounded: Three Local Hiking Destinations to Try

February 25, 2023 by Pia Haas

Hiking or nature walking is a favorite year-round pastime for many. It is a wonderful way to reconnect with Mother Nature. It is a chance to simply breathe in the fresh air and unplug from our busy, over-programmed lives.

The many benefits of hiking include reducing stress while improving our mood. Part of the beauty of hiking is admiring the world around us, too. The experience helps us to stay grounded in the moment and focus on simple pleasures like the crisp air against our faces, the sound of the leaves rustling, the gentle babbling of a stream, or the smell of a bed of leaves on a crisp fall morning.

Mother Nature reminds us to never take a single moment for granted. At the height of the pandemic, my daily walks helped keep me both sane and fulfilled. I ventured out on the trails and discovered some local gems! These are short escapes with tremendous payoffs. Have an hour? Take one of these low-key, less-traveled hikes.

Marian Yarrow Nature Preserve

432-428 Mt. Holly Road, Katonah, NY

Located in Lewisboro, Westchester County, the preserve comprises almost 80 acres and has over two miles of trails. This lovely hike will lead you through hardwood forests made up primarily of black birch, lots of white ash, white and red oak, and large-tooth aspen trees. En route, you’ll discover wetlands, lakes, and streams.

The trails are secluded enough that most of my treks there have been blessed with peaceful solitude. It is unlikely that you’ll come across many other people while exploring this beautiful place.

When you reach Hidden Lake, stop to watch for migratory birds; pileated woodpeckers, wood ducks, palm warblers, hermit thrushes, ovenbirds and indigo buntings have all been spotted here! Other lake dwellers include red-spotted newts, spotted salamanders, box and painted turtles, star-nosed moles, and mink. I encountered a beautiful fox who looked at me with soulful eyes before scampering off.

Near the lake, you will find a small stream cascading down into a 30-foot waterfall before flowing into the Indian Brook. The remainder of the preserve combines rugged and gentle terrain as well as a small meadow.

The trail is open year-round and is beautiful to visit any time. There is a four car parking area at the entrance. Dogs are also welcome, but must be on a leash.

Baxter Preserve

80-170 Baxter Road, North Salem, NY

This gorgeous site in North Salem, Westchester County, is 114 acres in total and has a large eight-acre pond surrounded by easy-to-walk trails. The parcel was donated by the North Salem Open Land Foundation in 1979.

With its combination of trails, forest, and meadows, Baxter preserve is a wonderful place for birding, cross-country skiing, and hiking. I’ve also seen horse-back riders and an occasional fisherman.

The trails are mostly wide and open, lined with a variety of trees including black cherry, cottonwood, maple, and apple.

The kaleidoscope of intensely colorful foliage in the fall and winter as well as the bounty of breathtaking wildflowers in the spring and summer make this a year-round wonder.

The trails are level and mostly covered with grass, which makes them easy for walking and enjoying the scenery. The main trail, called “The Racetrack”, is a 1.9-mile loop and circles the pond. It was once a place where people watched point-to-point horse races in the 1950’s.

The second trail in the Baxter Preserve diverges off the eastern part of the Racetrack; this will lead you into several more fields. Look for walnut trees, jewelweed, and even leopard frogs, another interesting inhabitant of Baxter.

Smaller trails branch off and traverse more fields in the Preserve, where wildflowers, ironweed, and purple loosestrife flourish. These trails can be marshy and wet after rain, so be prepared to step through puddles.

You can also check in on the chickens, who are usually happily clucking in their enclosure in the nearby farm.

The trail is open year-round and is beautiful to visit anytime. Dogs are welcome, but must be on a leash.

You can find the entrance to the trails in an open field located on Baxter Road. Roadside parking is available.

Zofnass Family Preserve

258 Upper Shad Road, Pound Ridge, NY

On an astounding 127 acres in Pound Ridge, Westchester County, this beautiful preserve includes an eight-mile trail network of rocky woods, streams, and marshes. Along the trails, you will find hundreds of stepping stones for crossing streams and wetlands, a 50’ tall stone staircase, old stone walls, and even a fort. There is also the great benefit of a three-acre arboretum, which features over 250 plant species.

Anyone in need of solitude and serenity might appreciate that the preserve is not heavily traveled. It’s a wonderful place to spend an afternoon walking in the forest and exploring the arboretum.

The trails are beautifully maintained and well-defined with printed educational plaques posted throughout and maps posted at major junctions, making it simple to navigate. I found it to be terrific, easy hiking, although the conditions could prove a bit challenging at some times of the year due to mud, tree roots, or uneven, rocky sections.

We are encouraged to look for wood frogs, spring peepers, yellow-throated vireos, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and wild turkeys.

Paul Zofnass, a Pound Ridge resident and member of the Westchester Land Trust’s Board of Directors, came up with the idea of creating a trail preserve here and over 10 years, put the project together. Paul and his family donated land, persuaded their neighbors to donate land, and created the impressive trail system. One of Paul Zofnass’ neighbors is Jane Pauley, after whom ‘Pauley’s Point’ was named. Another spot, ‘Trudeau’s Point of View,’ was named after her husband, cartoonist Garry Trudeau. They generously gave their land to the trust.

The trail is open year-round and is beautiful to visit anytime. Dogs are welcome, but must be on a leash.

There are two designated parking areas which can accommodate four to five cars each.

PERSONAL SAFETY PLUS AN UPDATE ON THE COUNTY TRAILWAYS

Any time you hike, it’s best to have a buddy with you. Whatever you decide, however, always bring a fully charged phone, plenty of water, snacks, and sun block.

Some good news for hikers using the North and South County Trailway and the Bronx River Pathway: Smart Signs with QR codes have been installed at trailheads and access points. The new mile markers with municipality names make it easier for trail users to relay where they are in case of an emergency. The signage includes a 9-1-1 locator sticker and a unique QR code for the trail, so emergency services can easily locate the person in need. Be sure to make a note of the mile marker information each time you pass an Emergency SOS 9-1-1 sign along the trails.

Local Filmmaker Creates A First Full-Length Feature Film

February 25, 2023 by Stacey Pfeffer

Dylan O’Keefe Presents: Zo in Exile

Moving to Chappaqua from the city during middle school wasn’t the easiest transition for Dylan O’Keefe. The now almost 30-year-old recalls that he wasn’t on any teams, nor did he do after school clubs. Instead he found solace in books and movies. He loved epic movies like the Star Wars series but also lesser-known horror/sci-fi movies such as Army of Darkness and The Thing. His mom who worked in book publishing fostered O’Keefe’s love of reading, film and strong storytelling.

But in addition to her, O’Keefe remembers Mr. Gilbert, his 7th grader English teacher at Robert E. Bell Middle School encouraging him to pursue creative writing. “I was a bit of a class clown–always getting in trouble,” he said. Whenever he had a book report, he used SparkNotes. However when he received a creative writing assignment, Mr. Gilbert initially accused him of plagiarism because it was far superior to anything else he had written. “My mom had to meet the principal. She told him that in my spare time, I would write fantasy stories in my room,” he now laughs when discussing the episode. Mr. Gilbert apologized and after that provided a lot of support for O’Keefe’s creative writing endeavors. “He told me I think your future may be writing,” O’Keefe recalls.

Fast forward almost two decades and O’Keefe is still writing stories. “I have at least 30 and some [stories] I have been writing and rewriting for 15-20 years.” O’Keefe graduated Horace Greeley in 2010 and entered the film industry after finishing a business degree at SUNY Albany in 2013. His father who worked in corporate A/V taught him a lot about camera/video equipment and operating microphones and video switchers.

Initially after graduation, O’Keefe worked on big budget productions, specializing in aerial photography. In 2017, he started his own video production company DOK Productions based out of Greenpoint, Brooklyn focusing on drone photography. His projects have included HBO’s Lovecraft Country, American Horror Story, Preacher and Seal Team. He’s also directed web series for Adult Swim and NY Fashion Week.

In his spare time, O’Keefe had created short films but with extra time on his hands during the pandemic, O’Keefe created his own first full-length independent feature film titled Zo in Exile. Heavily influenced by The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, the movie centers on Zo played by O’Keefe’s college friend Shiho Matsuoka. Zo and her friends escape for a weekend getaway in the quiet town of Exile, New York. But their bucolic vacation turns grim when Zo’s friends, fueled by debauchery, force her into a fantasy world where her only escape is to come to terms with her own destructive nature, according to the press materials.

Despite being low budget, O’Keefe paid everyone he hired for the film. “The goal was to employ people during the pandemic and make something fun while staying as COVID compliant as possible,” O’Keefe said. “Overall, I’m happy I was able to produce and film a full-length feature before I turned 30,” he said. The film has also been screened at several festivals both in the US and abroad and recently won an award for Best Fantasy Feature Film at France’s Hallucinea Film Festival.

O’Keefe hopes to inspire other young filmmakers with this project just as he was motivated years ago after speaking with Chappaqua-based screenwriter Mark Bomback who he read about in an article in Inside Chappaqua ten years ago. “Mark spoke about the good and bad parts of his career and what he learned along the way. It was a great experience to talk to someone in depth in the industry.”

“Young people today with their SmartPhones have way more powerful cameras and tools than anything that I had at 13.” He advises aspiring filmmakers experiment making movies. “They don’t have to be perfect but just try.”

And just like Bomback offered him advice years ago, O’Keefe said he’s willing to talk to any local high students interested in filmmaking.

To learn about scheduled screenings, visit Zo-in-exile.com. To reach out to O’Keefe, email him at info@dokproductions.com or check out his Twitter and Instagram Instagram.