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Video: <am>Wild Style</em> Director Filmed Times Square From His Window In The 1980s
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 20, 2015
Modified Oct 9, 2015
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 20, 2015
Modified Oct 9, 2015
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Blaring sirens followed by a megaphone-toting man ranting about blasphemies start out this video, filmed by Times Square resident (and Wild Style director) Charlie Ahearn between the years 1981 and 1983. Shot from his window, the forty minute video, called "Doin' Time in Times Square," includes everything you'd expect from candid 1980s Times Square footage—slow mo knock-out punches, neon XXX signs, plenty of cameos from the NYPD, and chaos. The chaos, however, is interspersed with quiet scenes from inside the apartment where all of this was being filmed from. It's been described as "the home video from hell," and was shown at the New York Film Festival in the 1990s.
You can buy this on DVD here. [via Big Appled]
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1980s
charlie ahearn
doin' time in times square
Times Square
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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