Shotplayer

You will jump the turnstile over the subway pickpocket documentary short Shotplayer, directed by Sam Shainberg and written by Shainberg and Willie Miesmer. It is narrated by Wilfred Rose, an old-school New York pickpocket who worked the subways during his career. Rose was brought to New York City from the Caribbean when he was 3 or 4 and grew up in Harlem. He started picking pockets at 13 years old and continued for decades.

In a voice-over, he describes his reliance on pickpocketing as an addiction: an adrenaline jolt followed by the zap pow of scoring a wad of cash. While describing his exploits, a now-aged Rose returns to the subway and reenacts his moves and methods for getting money clips out of trousers and billfolds out of purses. He also shows how, eventually, the law starts closing in, so it is time to jump out of that car fast and get to the next underground robbery…

“…returns to the subway and reenacts his moves and methods for getting money clips out of trousers…”

Shotplayer is as authentic to New York City as the perpetual stench of urine and pizza near subway entrances. I remember always having one hand on my wallet while riding the subway, with the other hand firmly wrapped around a tall boy of Colt 45 in a paper bag with a straw.

Rose’s profile is so interesting that his prime was also the city’s, as New York was at its most vibrant and accessible when it was also at its most dangerous. Rose describes an early date with his wife of three decades at the end of the 70s in Times Square. It was a showing of Halloween, and the lines in front of the theater were crazy. Rose asks his wife to wait across the street, then slips into the crowd to steal wallets. This is the first time his wife finds out what he does, revealed in a cold, matter-of-fact way that is chilling.

Shainberg has found a fantastic subject in Rose, as he represents another endangered New York species. The locations chosen are excellent for representing the Rotten Apple, and the reenactments are detailed enough to learn a trick or two about an obsolete skill, as barely anyone carries cash anymore. Shotplayer is an excellent character study of a thief and his city simultaneously.