‘Terminal Bar’ (2002) is a short film directed by Stefan Nadelman about a bar on Times Square in New York City, including photographs by his father Sheldon Nadelman, who worked at the bar from 1972-1982, and collected 10 years’ worth of photos.

Sheldon Nadleman took over 2,500 photos of the people of the bar and the bar itself, which closed in 1982, and in the photos, you can see the place and people developing throughout the years and the bar carrying on its rough aesthetic. The bar was originally mainly for Irish-Americans, but over time became a gay bar, yet still remained popular throughout.

The photos in the short film move around and appear/disappear to the beat of the heavy rock music, which adds to the aesthetic of the bar and gives an indication on what it must have been like to drink there. Toward the end, I realized the photos become categorized, for example, some are just of photos of people wearing glasses or wearing hats, and this makes the bar seem more diverse in who it was targeted for.

Sheldon Nadleman says that “nothing has changed” when he goes back to visit to bar years after it’s shut down and, as it’s now a video store, this quote suggests that the New York streets haven’t changed, as opposed to the bar. I like this quote because it may be implying that the bar still lives on in spirit, and that people will still remember it if they lived to see it in such a popular state.