Dark Days
2000
DARK DAYS, a groundbreaking documentary from British director Marc Singer, shows a way of life that is unimaginable to most people. The film, which features a moving soundtrack from DJ Shadow, focuses on a group of homeless people that live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. During the daytime they .. Read more
| Starring | Marc Singer |
|---|---|
| Director | Marc Singer |
| Genres | Documentary |
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Dark Days
DARK DAYS, a groundbreaking documentary from British director Marc Singer, shows a way of life that is unimaginable to most people. The film, which features a moving soundtrack from DJ Shadow, focuses on a group of homeless people that live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. During the daytime they scavenge for food on the streets of New York. At night, they retreat to the tunnel where they have built homes out of scrap metal, plastic, and plywood. The residents have electricity, furniture, and working kitchens, not to mention community, comradery, and the support of each other. Some of them have lived in the tunnel for 25 years.
Shot in vivid black and white, capturing both the grit (chicken wire, concrete walls, ramshackle shelters) and the honesty (the residents have hit rock bottom and admit it) of the tunnel, Singer's film consists of candid conversations with tunnel dwellers, who are intelligent, funny, optimistic, and above all, human. One man confesses that he once had a wife and a child, and that he lost both to his drug addiction (crack cocaine), while one teenage boy living in the tunnel explains that he was abused by his family in Florida and simply ran away, finding life in the tunnel more redeeming. In the film's emotional, understated conclusion, Singer, who actually resided in the tunnel while making DARK DAYS, turns to New York City's Coalition for the Homeless for help.
| Starring | Marc Singer |
|---|---|
| Director | Marc Singer |
| Studio | OPTIMUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 24 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Documentary |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 21 Jan 2002 Production year: 2000 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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British film-maker Marc Singer spent two years underground shooting his remarkable debut feature, a compassionate documentary about the inhabitants of the Amtrak tunnel network beneath New York's Pennsylvania Station. With his monochrome imagery evoking Depression-era photojournalism, Singer makes an important distinction between homeless and hopeless, as he captures the ingenious ways his articulate subjects survive in their subterranean world. Yet there is also genuine pain in the frank discussion of the way in which drugs robbed some of life, if not hope. Less convincing, however, is the “happy ending”, when the Amtrakers are resettled in above-ground accommodation, which feels more like a victory for conformity over individualism than social justice.
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Disturbing, diverting documentary, made over a period of two years, among derelicts and drug addicts, who still find life worth living, even in subterranean dark.
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Most helpful member's review
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23 out of 24 people found this review helpful
Outstanding documentary
When Marc Singer heard about the homeless people living in the subway tunnels under New York he understandably thought it would be a good subject for a documentary. The 20 year-old, who had never shot anything before, bought a camera and set out to film them in the hope of drawing attention to their plight. Singer ended up spending most of his savings and living with the tunnel people, even employing them as his crew.
Th result is one of the most compelling, moving and gritty films you will ever see. The homeless men and women shown in the film have created a community for themselves underground. They've hooked into the power supply, built makeshift shelters and they offer each other friendship and emotional support.
Some of these people have incredibly painful stories to tell and the film is at times overpowering. Singer has created a masterpiece among documentaries. 'Dark Days' is absorbing and eye-opening, funny and upsetting. In short it's real life and it demands to be seen. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
I originally heard about this documentary as it has DJ Shadow on the soundtrack, which it does. It is not only notable in that respect, as it is really a pretty good documentary.
Although they populate a forbidding world which few would dare to enter into, the inhabitants of the tunnel are all too human, as you get a feel for through listening as they describe not merely their daily lives of shack maintenance and pet care, but also their various and varied reasons for descending into the tunnels in the first place. Many of the stories are quite harrowing, evoking the demons that drove them to descend: you get the sense that most of their problems in the real world are still uresolved.
This DVD also has lots of what happened next information from after the film was released, and a making-of documentary that is possibly even better than the film. Possibly. Best of all, it has a positive ending, after all the doom and gloom of the tunnels, as they are all given new homes, determined never to go back underground. -
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Dark Days
DARK DAYS, a groundbreaking documentary from British director Marc Singer, shows a way of life that is unimaginable to most people. The film, which features a moving soundtrack from DJ Shadow, focuses on a group of homeless people that live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad ...
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