Terminal bar – Stefan Nadelman (2002)

The film terminal bar is a film made up of stills as well as traditional filming where the creator of the film is interviewing his father ‘Sheldon Nadelman’ about the bar as Sheldon documented the photos of the customers who came into the bar.

The stills of the customers were taken between 1972 and 1982 so Sheldon had documented 10 years’ worth of stills. His son asked, “what are you trying to show in these photographs?” and Sheldon replied, “I’m trying to show people what’s happening.” From this I can assume that he wanted recognition for these people and their stories as throughout the film he gave brief summaries of stories of some of the customers and the rumours that followed them.

From this documentary, I similarly might follow the way Stefan Nadelman makes the film where it transitions from the stills to the actual film because I found that this was very effective and kept you interested. The film is also very fast paced going from one story to the other, he also keeps it quite blunt not going into too much detail but giving enough information to understand what went on at the ‘terminal bar’. The music is also fast paced and doesn’t stop at any point during the film even when Stefan is interviewing his father which in my opinion shows the movie is more concentrated on the stills rather than the traditional filming otherwise the music would be more subtle and quiet.

Maggie Saunders.