The Gods of Times Square

Excerpt #1

 

Excerpt #2

 
 

The Gods of Times Square, 1999
Directed and produced by Richard Sandler

The Gods Of Times Square was shot over a six year period that witnessed a radical transformation of "the Crossroads of the World." Gone now are the mom and pop stores, squeezed out by a real estate gold rush. Gone too are the colorful characters who made Times Square a "Speaker's Corner." The Gods of Times Square thus records a moment in New York City history when the place most identified with free speech and free spirits, changed from a democratic, inter-racial, common-ground, to a corporate controlled soulless theme park. Now the choices are fewer, the prices are higher, and the "sin" is gone. The fabled "white way" now plays host to the newest of Gods: Mickey, Minnie and Goofy on one corner, Bugs Daffy and Porky on the other.


FILM FEST AWARDS

2000 Audience Award, Popcorn Film Festival (Stockholm, Sweden)
1999 Best Documentary, Chicago Underground Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
1999 Best Documentary, Rotterdam Film Festival (Rotterdam, Netherlands) 
 

FILM FEST SCREENINGS

2000 San Francisco Indiefest (San Francisco, CA)
2000 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)
2000 New York Underground Film Festival (New York, NY)
1999 Rotterdam Film Festival (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
1999 Popcorn Film Festival (Stockholm, Sweden)
1999 Chicago Underground Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
 

REVIEWS

FILM REVIEW; The Gods Hovering in Times Square

New York Times
9.20.2000

The Times Square of legend takes a last loopy bow in Richard Sandler's engaging documentary "The Gods of Times Square."

The Film File: The Gods of Times Square

Hour Community
7.22.2004

About half way through The Gods of Times Square, director/documentarian Richard Sandler captures the defining parable of his film. A man is talking about the world as an apple tree. "An apple tree is leaves and bark, branches and roots, and apples," the man says. "The world needs all of this to exist, as the apple tree needs it all to exist. But still, only a few can be apples."