''I Like Killing Flies'' is a 2004 documentary film produced, directed, filmed, and edited by

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', ''Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Time ...

. It documents Shopsins restaurant in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

and its owner and head cook, Kenny Shopsin. In 2002 and 2003, Mahurin followed Shopsin in his final year at the location he ran for over 30 years. Throughout the film, Shopsin offers what he calls "half-baked" philosophy, peppered with profanities. In the first half, Shopsin opens his eatery for the day and talks about his kitchen, his business, his employees, and his customers. We meet the regulars and friends who eat some of the 900 eclectic dishes he prepares, and we learn the rules of the restaurant: all customers must eat, parties of four or more are unwelcome, and anyone who irritates the owner will be swiftly shown the door. Shopsin's wife and children, all of whom work at the restaurant, weigh in on what it's like to work for this eccentric and occasionally hot-tempered man. In the film's second half, Shopsin loses his lease and is forced to move his establishment to a larger location on nearby Carmine Street. Family, friends, and customers all pitch in to help with the move. Everything must go, from hundreds of knick-knacks and supplies to an alarmingly rickety stove. The reopening is a resounding success. The epilogue grants the audience one last glimpse of Shopsin's life the following year, and it is revealed that Shopsin's wife has died, but he seems not to have changed at all. Shopsin, who has been profiled in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' by

Calvin Trillin Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts an ...

, wrote a 2008 book with Carolynn Carreño entitled ''Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin''.

References

External links

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Official Site

Shopsins home page
2004 films American documentary films Documentary films about business Documentary films about food and drink Films shot in New York City Culture of New York City Documentary films about New York City Films set in Manhattan Greenwich Village 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-US-film-stub