Literary Las Vegas: Paul S. Bodner

Las Vegas resident Paul S. Bodner faced his 2012 Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis with humor and a determination to squeeze something sweet out of the biggest lemon of his life. He shares his experiences before and after the news in “My Lemonade Life: A Memoir of Living With Love, Laughter and Now … Cancer.” Far from doom and gloom, Bodner said the book “is all about hope.” For more information, visit paulbodner.com.

Excerpt:

Seven of my friends were film nuts, like me. Big time. So we decided what this town really needed was a film festival. And who would be more perfect to voluntarily organize it? Me. The one with the biggest mouth.

I know by now you’ve read that I have done a lot of things, but a film festival? Really? What was I thinking? Well, it actually became one of the highlights of my Vegas life, growing a grassroots organization with some very passionate people who believed in the mission and loved film.

We got lucky when Tony Curtis moved to Vegas, right around the time we were starting to organize the film festival. I cold-called him and asked him to accept our first Lifetime Achievement Award. He did…

CineVegas gained momentum. The NY Times called it, “USA’s fastest-growing film festival.” Sadly, several years later, when the economy really struggled, advertising and money started to dry up. That put CineVegas on hold … to this day. One day, it will come back — hopefully.