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Notes on a late night subway ride

futureofthebook.org/itinplace/

Credits

162 Likes

  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    OMG --- what a night and what a video. Thank you for giving him some air and for making this. I notice the rise in homelessness is rising sharply again during this crazy "Renaissance " of tarring every building down to make a new high rise for the wealthy.
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    it was a bizarre experience. I mean there was a car load of late night people and this one guy wrapped in plastic. It took me a long time just looking at the oddness of him in a dry subway wrapped in plastic... to then remember that kids die all the time in dry cleaning bags, etc... and then I though of his whole journey in the night .. and well I was ashamed that my first reaction was how interesting he looked in that bag.

    I clawed about five holes in the bag... I hope it was enough.

    You can drown in teaspooon of water....
  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    Yea I would of felt funny too and I know the feeling. Moriza actually was saying how he felt guilty taping the homeless guy he found sleeping. Meanwhile I was at a community garden today taping an old rusty birdbath and was asked to stop filming the "art" lol that it was not right. I was like "oh this is a sculpture?" He started yelling at me. I don't have the whole conversation on tape but part of it - I had to stop because he was all upset I was filming the rusty objects laying around in the garden. It was really bizarre.
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    now that I want to hear.

    My need to shoot it was interesting to me. Only and also because I was going to shoot him in the bag as it was aesthetically interesting.. and then I had on of those Daffy DUck "WAIT A FUCKING MINUTUTE" moments... or was it just paternal?

    Well it takes a village, or a subway train, or at least a beery artist.

    I'm still not sure it wasn't a suicide attempt.
  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    not a suicide attempt maybe he was drunk. How was Galapagos BTW?
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    Oh my god. Galapagos looks like heaven fucked hell.... litterally.. its vegas and the Copacobana floating on steel. Nuts beautiful... and the nice thing was there was no one there so I go to really just dig the space as space.
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  • Joe Moya plus 1 year ago
    Recording of situations in life like this is not common... this is what makes this video very interesting and captivating. ... and, what adds to this is the audio editing...

    Very good...
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  • JD 1 year ago
    I dig things like this.

    Awesome.
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    I'm hoping never to experience them.
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  • f3ilter plus 1 year ago
    Because of the angle of the shot there was a moment of transformation for me: I did not realize that their was a person under the plastic.
    The effect of this was pretty shocking: out of the abstract folds of plastic a sad human form appears...
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    yeah me too... but in my own mind:

    "Dude look at that plastic... who'd leave plastic like that all around? fucking slob dude? fuck them they suck... man ....

    and blah blah.

    Hey wait... there's someone unnder that... shit... want's to be dry... shit....plastic.

    Mommy always told me not to play with plastic bags. Mommy


    she said I'd suffocate,but that... long time ago.

    he's okay.

    he knows how to live.

    He's probably homeless

    so he knows how to live...



    wait...if he's homeless....

    maybe he doesn't know how to live... maybe he doesn't even want to live?


    that's about the time I went up and opened the bag.
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  • Blake Whitman staff 1 year ago
    Only in NYC.

    This was cool.
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    yeah the thing that doesn't quite show here is that I had to acutally tear holes in front of his face... (as that is what kills)
    These shots are from my tentative first stab (also trying to wake him up)

    later I just wend for the head.

    wish I shot that whole thing... crazy
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  • Benk 1 year ago
    Wow Alex,

    Even though you said that you were ashamed that your first reaction was about "how interesting he looked in that bag", I have to say he looks like a giant toy in a bag. It really is visually interesting... mostly because it's so unusual!
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    yeah I hope that's clear.

    I was like "what a shot"

    and then my super ego mother voice said "is he breathing?"
    Yes super ego mother voice.

    You sure?

    Well?? ....???....no

    Check?

    went up and saw the chest move.

    He's breathing


    Great...dude... he's in a bag.

    Yeah?

    Kids suffocate in a bag all the time... just as they are dumb kids.

    Yeah?

    Well he's not dumb kid.

    Right

    What?

    He's not a dumb kid.

    Yeah and so? Fucker.

    Why are you nasty now?

    Cause you are stupid.

    What?

    Fuck.

    What?

    Fuck you.

    what?

    LIsten to me.

    I'm listening.
  • Benk 1 year ago
    LOL!!!!!

    Best comment reply I've ever seen!
  • Benk 1 year ago
    ....and LOL "super ego mother voice" !!
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    Glad you enjoyed. It's all too true.
  • Robin Thacker plus 8 months ago
    That comment would've made for an awesome narrative.
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    I suppose it is at least in prose form, but yeah maybe I'll have to do a dramatization as a short film. Good idea really. Thanks.
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  • ishan 1 year ago
    all hail st samaritan of the Polyethylene good looking glass... some times after the bars close one doesn't even worry about getting laid huh?
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    well you worry about it, but all faith fails I suppose.
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  • Steve Holt 1 year ago
    That was good thinking and a good thing to do.
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  • moriza plus 1 year ago
    This video is so freakily fantastic, glad you put some holes in that plastic, you might have saved his life. I have to write you up on the heroreports.
    web.media.mit.edu/~alyssa/NYC/
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    never seen the heroreports before. Only read the parody in the Onion.
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  • Matt Taylor 1 year ago
    Really Surreal For Real!
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  • eladbari 1 year ago
    wow! very intense, and surreal!

    it all reminded me, as i was visiting in nyc, ive seen alot of people in need of some help. and let me tell ya, people didnt want my help and were even pissed bout me. its really customary to help ppl out where i come from. But i just cant forget the weird look i got when i helped this mom with a carrage to go down the stairs [she freaked out that a stranger helped her,but she let me]. and i wont forget the screams i got from a blind old woman that kept bumping into walls, when i tried to ask if i could help her.
    nyc is very weird.i love it,but its weird....
    there are too many imaginary walls between ppl.no one cares... :\
  • Alex Itin plus 1 year ago
    Oh I don't know, I've helped a lot of mother's with their strollers over the years. It's not so uncommon.
  • eladbari 1 year ago
    thats good to know, because my friends had similar experiences [american friends]. and since they dont do it. its funny, some told me to not help a person that fell, cause some might sue you for making them fall. its,like,a routine some bums do i guess :]
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  • Sam Westrop 1 year ago
    loved the voice over and strange visuals
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  • Le PôLe plus 8 months ago
    Strange experience happen to you and you succeed to make a video drama. With simplicity. It was a situation where many people can panic. And naturally you make pictures and holes in plastic. terrific... Everythings seem to be a real and spectacular. What are we ready to do pictures of our travael in life ???
    I don't really know the word in english but it's improvisation. I really think you got a vibe...
    your voice for the comment is coming from your fear, maybe or something...
    I watch your work and there is always an atmosphere...
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  • John Holdun 8 months ago
    Delivery reminds me of Billy Collins. What a bizarrely uplifting little video.
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  • Gus 8 months ago
    So sad! Was it true?
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    So true and So sad
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  • Zafarali Ahmed 8 months ago
    wow. this is sad...
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  • rickflick 8 months ago
    You are a generous guy.
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    Doesn't take a good SamarITIN to save a life... just you know, someONE.
  • rickflick 8 months ago
    u deserve credit. Nice work.
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  • Paul Davis plus 8 months ago
    And I complain when I have to call someone to come fix my furnace. It gets fixed, I'm happy, then I see something like this video.

    Wow....I'm a shallow human being. =(
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    You just deal with what's on your plate. Furnace going out or leaking C02 could be the fixings for a tragedy as well. This guy wasn't going to freeze to death, he was just dumb, or high enough to accidently kill himself.
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  • brian caiazza plus 8 months ago
    only in Noir-Y-C.
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    I bet you can see this sort of thing all over the world... late night trains are full of weirdness in Paris and Moscow and Japan, etc.
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  • Debra Grieves 8 months ago
    very interesting. I appreciate that you found your humanity and put some holes in the plastic. We are here on this planet to help one another.
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  • malcolm man 8 months ago
    I love short little stories from everyday life.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Also, you may have saved his life 0_o
  • Alex Itin plus 8 months ago
    who knows. He probably would have been fine. It's actually a pretty hard thing to die. Look at all the failed suicides. However. It was more or less apalled at myself because my FIRST reaction was: Damn that's weird looking. I should take a picture. and then I asked my self why he looked so cool: I mean it's just a man and some plastic, but I started reasoning: He looks like a corpse out of a Scorcesse movie and I asked myself why and a I realized he was wrapped in plastic and Then I realized that if he WAS wrapped in plastic that there was a definite risk of aphoexia, or however you say aphoixation my Latin sucks, but anyway it was only after getting out the camera thinking about Scorcesse and Coppola and the history of the mob movie in America that it finally dawned on me that this guy could be dead, or dying. So it was only then that I realized I should probably check and then when I saw that He was indeed alive, I should probably to something to make sure he stays that way. Course in my own defense, no one else on the Subway did anything. We are drunk and asleep coming home on the F to Brooklyn. No sleep till.... etc.
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  • Cielo Blaq plus 8 months ago
    amazing
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  • Noah Payne 8 months ago
    Wow....ur a literally a life saver..i live in NYC and never saw something like that on the train...cool
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  • Carrotkid 8 months ago
    Wow, what a bizarre event to stumble upon! Glad you made this video to share with us this experience you had. I'd say you are a subway hero for sure.
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  • tom blumenthal 8 months ago
    unbeweavable
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  • Bert08 8 months ago
    Probably the next morning he cursed at the punk that made those holes in his waterproof shelter.
    Just kidding. Nice video :P
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  • NY Skye 8 months ago
    I like the time lapse shots at the intro very cool
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  • Mark Ragunton 8 months ago
    almost me reminded me of bubble boy.
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  • Randi Bennett 8 months ago
    Wooow!
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  • charliekike 8 months ago
    great =) !!!!!!
  •  
  • Truly haunting. Reminds me of the shit I did in the 80s.
  •  
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