Downtown Locals (2006)

Follows six unique subway performers as they struggle to earn a living and defend their right to perform in New York City's underground. Among those you'll meet are the Mercury Man, a struggling actor who stands motionless for hours at a time; Julio, a Colombian immigrant who dances with a life-sized doll attached to his shoes; and Helen, a Vassar graduate who in her forties reinvents herself as an accordion-playing chanteuse. Each weathers a roller-coaster year of personal successes and defeats, remaining true to their art despite struggles with the police, city bureaucracy, money , complex pasts, addiction and loneliness. DOWNTOWN LOCALS reveals the microcosm of the true underground by drawing us into the lives of a few of Nww York City's less celebrated characters.