The Gods of Times Square (1999)

Richard Sandler's documentary captures the preachers, zealots and street evangelists who claimed Times Square as their pulpit in the years before the city's clean-up drive transformed 42nd Street.

Filmed between 1993 and 1998, this documentary records a vanished corner of New York life, when Times Square echoed with fire-and-brimstone sermons from an extraordinary cast of street preachers. Director Richard Sandler, shooting well before Mayor Giuliani's campaign to tidy up the city, offers a vivid portrait of 42nd Street as an open-air pulpit. It is a fascinating time capsule of urban change and religious fervour.