Diary of a Time Square Thief

Asia Pacific Premiere

Diary of a Times Square Thief documents the search for the writer of a mysterious diary. This manuscript describes the adventures of a young man who left the Midwest to go to New York. His big dream: to find a publisher for his work and become a writer. He fails.

The diary, which the filmmaker found on Ebay, gives a frank and confronting account of the author’s subsequent downfall. This is where the diary ends — its last pages have been cut out with a knife.

The film paints a vivid picture of the worldfamous Times Square area when it was still a dramatically brutal urban jungle.

Through intimate portraits of some of the colourful characters described in the diary, the fate of the talented but failed author emerges as does the value of chasing dreams. Apparently
random images will stun you with clarity and meaning.

Director Bense brilliantly allows his subjects to tell their stories while inter-cutting various images of the city, people in its underbelly, or aquariums. His work is reminiscent of Scorcese’s early works.