Terminal Bar also known as New York City’s toughest is a capturing short film that tells a story of a Bar on 8th Avenue over a decade (1972-1982). The film is short and to the point, it creates an atmosphere of how life was, going from bar to bar. You are immediately pulled into the film, the intriguing description of the bar and the portraits that teach a lesson or tell a story. Furthermore, the still images are being used as animations simply hypnotise the viewer wanting to carry on watching. The narrators compelling voice makes you sympathise about everyone making a more personal connection with them as each image flashes up and slowly zooms closer into their eyes, you’re directly looking into them and see their pain, their obsession with alcohol and that it took over their lives. The way the narrator calls the individuals numbers shows that they are an object rather than a human being as there are so many and very few names are remembered.
To me Terminal Bar gives us a taste of the old days and teaches us a lesson about drinking as we can see throughout the film the many people that started to deteriorate. The interactive documentary gives us an insight of the day to day lives of African American, Mexican and white men and how the wave of people changed within the bar and it slowly becoming one of the most popular gay bars in New York city. To be continued…