The Realest Fake Doc You’ll See: Matt Lenski’s “The Last Head Shop” 💀

Matt Lenski, in collaboration with AI “photographer” Sy Goldstein, released “The Last Head Shop.”

“New York in the 90s was wild. But what if the stories were even wilder? ‘The Last Head Shop’ – A NYC Doc (That Never Happened) digs up a version of the city built on half-truths, urban legends, and headless bodies in topless bars. The kind of history that only exists when nobody fact-checks. If you’ve ever reminisced about ‘the real New York’—whether you lived it or just heard about it—this one’s for you. I grew up in New York and wanted to capture the forgotten city I actually remember—except this version is entirely made up.

While AI helped generate the imagery, the production was fairly traditional, distinctly analog and human. Generative AI should elevate cinema, not replace it. That was true across script, performance, imagery, music, editorial, and finishing. The project began with Sy’s old image of a fictitious NY “skull dealer.” I recorded improvised audio interviews with an actor in the role, then cut them into a timeline with Aaron Langley (Cosmo St). To ground our fantasy in real NYC history, we wove in archival news and interview footage. Our first cuts used hundreds of AI-generated stills as storyboards, guiding the extraction of key video moments. Original music was composed, and Phil Loeb (Heard City) gave the audio an archival quality. Tim Masick (Co. 3) handled the telecine, ensuring each clip felt as if it had been sourced over decades. We even exported to VHS to break AI’s digital sterility.” - Matt Lenski

To be clear: This is satire. This is not real. There are no headshops. Headshops never existed. What a shame.

Featured in Little Black Book.