Directed by Stephan Nadelman, Terminal Bar (2002) is an award winning american short film depicting a ‘photographic record of New Yorks most notorious watering hole’. After two years of filming and ten years of photographs (1972-1982) of the Hells Kitchen crowd that entered the bar, they were combined into montage of moving stills against dynamic music that synchronised beautifully. Set on Eighth Avenue, a plethora of punters were associated with the bar, most commonly heavy drinkers.

Sheldon Nadelmans was the barman at Terminal Bar and the filmmaker’s father; his face shots brought the quality to this film. The black and white raw images are extremely kinetic, always on the move. Zooming into the image and backing out into a larger version of the image gives the film some depth and a sense of layering. Images move in all directions, some like a photo reel, others layered on top of each other and flash in and out of the foreground.

The fast pace mosaic of portraits moves to the techno beats flawlessly and fits exactly with the BPM. The music also acts as a break towards the end of the film to the narration. Narrated my Tom Cliffard, whose strong New York accent gives an authenticity to the short. Narrations of newspaper articles also appear on screen as they flicker in and out of the photographs.

I enjoyed the documentary for its use of photography and how the images would come into and out of shot. The music and moving image synchronisation is very effective and well worth a watch.

Anon, (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.papress.com/html/product.details.dna?isbn=9781616892135 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].