The Critics Say…
Sunshine Hotel
A journey into the last “flophouse” on The Bowery.
As seen on Sundance Channel. Just decades ago, flophouses in New York housed nearly 25,000 men living on the margins of society. Today few remain. Filmmaker Michael Dominic takes his camera behind the doors of the Sunshine Hotel, one of the few remaining affordable refuges for the destitute and out of luck, a world that has seemingly stood still for more than eight decades. Here the hotel residents live in tiny four-by-six-foot cubicles crowned by a ceiling of chicken wire. Focusing on several of the Sunshine’s denizens – including a drag queen saving all his money for plastic surgery and a hotel manager who doubles as its resident philosopher – Dominic presents a non-judgmental snapshot of a diverse group of characters as memorable as the characters at Harry Hope’s bar in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.”
Michael Dominic
I am a filmmaker and photojournalist from New York City. My area of focus is documentary. I try to navigate the tight spaces of the world, and take away beautiful stories and images from them. The objective of my work is truth, to show what lies beneath the surface or out of sight.
In the mid-90s I was based in London where I directed music videos for SpiderCom Films, including three for Pizzaman/Norman Cook, now Fatboy Slim.
My photography has appeared in The Sunday Telegraph, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Playboy, Redbook, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, The Tribune De Geneve, France-Amérique, ABCNews.com, CBSnews.com, MSN.com, as well as others.
I currently live in New York City with my wife Ting.
Gallery
Screenings
Sundanhce Channel 2002-2004
Durango Film Festival (2001): BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Banff Centre for the Arts (2001)
Santa Monica International Film Festival (2001)
Valleyfest (2001)
Tambay Film Festival (2001)
Cucalorus Film Festival (2001): OPENING NIGHT FEATURE
Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (2001)
CineVue Film Festival (2001): BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
IndiUrban Film Festival (2001)
Silver Street Film Festival (2001): BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Rhode Island International Film Festival (2001)
50th Melbourne International Film Festival (2001)
Athens International Film Festival (2001)
Long Island Film Expo (2001)
Highgate Film Festival (2001)
Atlantic Film Festival (2001)
IFP Film Market (2001)
International 1001 Turkish Documentary Film Festival (2001)
IDA Doctober (2001)
Lincoln Center: Independents Night (2001)
Lake Havasu Film Festival (2002)
911 Media Arts Center (2002)
La Mesa, California (2014)