Terminal Bar (2003) by Stefan Nadelman is an award winning short film. It centers around Nadelman’s collection of photos taken at his father’s bar over the course of ten years. The film is full of anecdotes and story snippets from the ten years that Stefan Nadelman’s father (Sheldon Nadelman) ran the bar. The film won awards at three major film festivals in 2003 including Sundance Film Festival.

This film is classed as a documentary as well as a short film. Nadelman uses real life images of customers and bar workers taken over the ten year period. It shows a raw and uncensored look into the lives of the working class New Yorker during the late 20th century (1972-82). The audience is able to delve into the lives of the bar’s patrons through the large number of photographic portraits and sobering narration by Tom Clifford.

What is truly unique about the short is how the photographs are presented to its viewers. Nadelman uses his stills in a very cinematic way, almost choreographing his images to the time of the film scoring. Other times he positions dozens of stills across the screen in large patterns or configuration. He uses a mixture of real-time recordings and stills to allow us to glimpse into the actual life of the Terminal Bar and its inhabitants.

What confuses many about the film is Nadelman’s motivations to publicise such a bleak and unmoderated look into the lives of working class American Citizens. But as Nadelman’s father states in the final few moments of the film, ‘Nothing had changed, but if I hadn’t documented it no one would know about it.’