“America’s religion is money… if you don’t have money, you’re just nothing – a used condom.” So proclaims one of the many denizens of the “Crossroads of the World” documented in Richard Sandler’s astounding, two-hour odyssey THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE.

A visual spectacle, THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE is a dizzying tour down the late-20th Century Deuce, with vertiginous, kaleidoscopic B-roll… as chaotic and exciting as any late-night dissent into the district: shots of condemned buildings adorned with Calvin Klein ads and shuttered, once glorious movie palaces featuring Jenny Holzer’s dystopian haiku on their marquees. Sandler, who spent decades capturing NYC streets via his black & white still images, embraces the inhabitants of this forsaken zone and asks deeply empathetic questions with an earnest curiosity about and concern for the human condition. Says one pseudo-prophet, “God has directed us to meet here.”

And we meet born-again zealots of all denominations: gospel-singing buskers, unhoused shamans, wannabe priests, makeshift rabbis, phony evangelicals, and an alcoholic, self-described “porno addict.” (“I love Lucifer’s kinkiness.”) Most heartbreaking is “Jim,” who’s convinced that he is Jesus incarnate and, in 1994, will marry Madonna (the pop icon, not the mother of God), release a triple-platinum grunge album, then “enter into international affairs.”

Shot over six years during the most significant transition of power and property in the neighborhood’s history, THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE features a second-act eulogy for Frank Hakim and his restaurant Grand Luncheonette, located adjacent to the Selwyn Theatre’s lobby, which he was forced to close after 58 years in operation. Frank’s wife laments, “There is no room on the same block for Walt Disney and us.”

Profoundly elegiac, THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE affirms the breadth and mystery of humanity – urban or otherwise. At one point, Richard and a bystander conclude, while watching a man defecating in the gutter outside of the Howard Johnson’s, that “everybody’s equal in shit.”

This restoration, made possible by Jake Perlin and The Safdie Brothers, commemorates an undeniably urgent and vital moment in documentary filmmaking and New York history. Says Josh Safdie of Richard Sandler’s masterpiece:

“Once upon a time, town squares were comment sections, where people brave enough to shout their opinions did it face to face.  There is no stronger belief than one’s faith, and what used to be Times Square was a town square on steroids.  As the 20th century came to an end, we entered the corporatized Y2K age.  Spirituality seemed an essential grounding force, something to unify us.  But whose God is supreme? What is God? What is God’s place in the digital age? When Disney invaded Times Square, it went up against the smut.  It was a magnet for all things good and bad.  It was hell with attractions.  I still secretly wish to be yelled at whenever I enter Times Square…”

In this documentary, filmmaker Penelope Spheeris captures the life of Los Angeles “gutter punks”: homeless teenagers who prefer anarchy and chaos to organized society. Many of the film’s subjects come from abusive households and have developed alcohol and drug problems. While living on the streets, they must panhandle, squat in abandoned apartment buildings and fight off skinheads to survive. The film also includes performances by several notable Los Angeles punk bands.

Filmmaker Terry Zwigoff creates a complex but affectionate portrait of his longtime friend, underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. A notorious curmudgeon who would prefer to be alone with his fellow cartoonist wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb and his beloved vintage jazz records, Crumb reveals himself to be a complicated personality who suffered a troubled upbringing and harbors a philosophical opposition to the 1960s hippie underground that first celebrated his work.

Warning: Images are not from the movies we’re showing. Trust us, you can’t imagine what we’re showing!

A smart bomb that explodes the gangster film from the inside, this flick is about a bunch of street thugs who’ll get rich or die trying, but it’s also a branching path Buddhist meditation on fate, a reincarnation rodeo, and a black comedy beatdown. Rarely screened, and shot on the run in throbbing fluorescent colors, it’s filmed backwards, forwards, and upside down by one of Hong Kong’s legendary cameramen, it features some of Hong Kong’s best actors, and it’s directed by one of its Great Directors back when he didn’t give AF. Released in 1997 when everyone involved had nothing to lose, this is a Molotov cocktail of a movie thrown through the Nitehawk’s silver screen.

While reading a novel by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf on the bus, Ali Sabzian strikes up a conversation with a pretty girl, Mahrokh Ahankhah. When she tells him her family admires Makhmalbaf’s work, Ali pretends to be the filmmaker to impress her. Becoming friendly with the Ahankhahs, Ali tells them he is preparing a new movie, but when they uncover his true identity, he is arrested for fraud. This film reenacts the true story of the incident, with Ali and the family playing themselves.

African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

Barry Blaustein’s honest, intimate, revealing, highly entertaining, and critically acclaimed behind-the-scenes look at wrestling, takes viewers beyond the ring and into the lives of the men and women who inhabit this colorful, competitive, and surprisingly complex world.

In this cult-favorite documentary, Mark Borchardt, an aspiring filmmaker from a working-class Wisconsin background, is set on finishing his low-budget horror movie, despite a barrage of difficulties. Plagued by lack of cash, unreliable help and numerous personal problems, Mark wants to complete the film to raise funds for a more ambitious drama. With the assistance of his bumbling but loyal friend Mike Schank, Mark struggles to move forward, making for plenty of bittersweet moments.

Filmmaker Nick Broomfield follows the saga of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who has been accused of committing a brutal series of murders. Broomfield conducts interviews with Wuornos herself, and his crew films her trial as well as her interactions with religious fanatic Arlene Pralle, who gives Wuornos dubious advice and legally adopts her. The cameras also roll as the accused’s attorney ignores the case at hand to negotiate a deal to sell his client’s story.