Filmmaker Richard Sandler’s hand-held camera documentary The Gods of Times Square was made in the early 1990’s. The entire thing is available for view on the web here (93 minutes long). Sandler’s hand-held camera captures and interacts with religious shouters (the film’s core subject) as well as end-of-world megaphone types, transsexuals, weird runaway teens, homeless people, prostitutes, junkies, characters, fanatics, nuts, tourists, and “normals” stepping around a guy taking a daytime dump on the sidewalk right in front of Howard Johnson’s. The film captures the complex human mix of Times Square before, and leading up to, it’s radical corporate transformation in the late 90’s. A few moments in the picture are pretty hokey (it is 15 years old), but they’re worth it for the great moments – which you’ll see when you watch it. Great stuff.

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