Forty minutes of seedy Times Square footage that movie director Charlie Ahearn shot from his apartment building on 43rd Street from 1981 to 1983 (aka THE REALLY FUN, DANGEROUS YEARS). Drug dealers argue with clients, hookers get in fights with their pimps, people get mugged, crazy people rant – God, I miss that shit. Sure, it’s a safer place now, and Times Square tourists bring in lots of revenue to the city, blah blah blah, but this was LIFE. This was GRIT AND GRIME AND URBAN DECAY and all the things that made New York so intoxicating for a young rube from Saginaw, Michigan. Feels like I’m right back again. Watch Doin’ Time in Times Square below.
Doin’ Time in Times Square has been dubbed “the home video from hell” for a reason. It appeared at the New York Film Festival in 1992, and you can get it on DVD here. (via Dangerous Minds; t/y Ben)
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