Prince Hotel2003

In 1986 Kels received a fellowship that alllowed him to study at Cooper Union in New York. During his study there, Kels spent some six months at the Bowery in lower Manhattan. He began hanging out with the less fortunate who eke out an existence in cheap hotels or on the street, and became friendly with many of them. In the lives of the mostly male alcoholics who survive on open camaraderie and cheap alcohol, he discovered a rich unstaged world, which he slowly started to film. Against the background of a run-down Price Hotle we see men who pass time together, deliberately portrayed by Kels clear eye for framin g detial, and yet whose acts and movements cannot be controlled. – Myriam van Lier