‘Terminal Bar’ (2002) is a documentary-style short film created by Stefan Nadelman of touristpictures.com. It incorporates hundreds of stills taken by the filmmakers father (Sheldon Nadelman) of the variety of visitors to the seedy bar he worked at for years. His motivation was to document the patrons and stories alongside them, to create a social narrative that otherwise would be lost without a trace as history moved forward and developed. “If you don’t put it down on paper, nobody knows.” (Nadelman, 2002)

(Nadelman, 2013)

This sense of time that is being displayed is an extremely important part of the film as these photographs have been taken over a decade, yet you can see someone ageing through years in a second. This brings an element of impermanence, the reminder that the world is ever changing with people coming and going all the time. This theme is echoed at the end of the film when they revisit the sight of the Terminal Bar to see it has been repurposed as a video store, with little to recognise it had ever been there other than old memories and these photos.

Despite the film being almost completely made up of still photographs, the editing and fast-paced music brings a strong kinetic energy as the photographs slide across the screen and hit the beats of the music. The music, flow of editing and scratchy voice-over provide a strong narrative that gives you the almost overwhelming feeling of being in a crowded bar with loud music, coupled with newspaper pieces and filmed interviews that give that extra detail.

Bibliography

Nadelman, S. (2013). Terminal Bar. (short film) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfWBbZBqYjo [Accessed 28 Oct. 2017].