Dark Days
by Marc Singer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Marc SingerDirector: Marc Singer
Brand: Palm
Cinematographer: Marc Singer
Producer: Marc Singer
Editor: Melissa Niedich
Producer: Avra Jain
Producer: Ben Freedman
Producer: Charlotte Stockdale
Producer: Christopher Griffith
Producer: David Wike
Producer: Giancarlo Bonati
Producer: Gordon Paul
Producer: Mette Jensen
Producer: Morton Swinsky
Producer: Paolo Seganti
Producer: Randall Mesdon
Producer: Rick Giles
Producer: Scott Bradley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: PALMDV3036
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Product features:
- In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground it has been home for as long as twenty-five years. Deeply moving and surprisingly entertaining, Dark Days is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness by revealing a thriving community livin
Movie Reviews of Dark Days
Movie Review: Excellent Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
"Dark Days" is a wonderful documentary and is mandatory viewing for anyone interested in those who make their homes beneath the streets of NYC. "Dark Days" offers up a visual tour of this subterranean landscape. As someone who lives in NYC, and has been interested in this phenomenon for sometime, "Dark Days" is a fascinating work. Although I must admit that I have a definite attraction to the perverse and mysterious nature of the underground, Singer reminds us that there is much humanity to be found within the sooty vermin-infested underbelly that lies just beyond the subway tracks. Singer is enamored with the people who live underground and portrays them as complete human beings. He conducts a sort of Anthropological approach in dealing with them. He is their friend, he's lived among them and has established their trust, he speaks their language, and he understands their needs and concerns. The most important element of those who live underground that Singer brings to the forefront are that they are part of a large subculture that thrives on relationships and human compassion. Yes, a lot of these people are living underground because of choices that they made, many are hiding from addiction, family, the law, and life ON the streets. Living underground in the vast tunnel network of the NYC subway system, many of these individuals have found their home. Many of them have even built their homes underground. There is electricity to be found down there, as well as water. It is not uncommon for those living underground to have TVs, cooking stoves, makeshift toilets, and multi-room dwellings. "Dark Days" shows all of this, as well as showcasing the relationships cultivated between those living underground. Through Singer, we become attached to these individuals. After watching this, I found myself wanting to know where these people are now.
The DVD offers a selection as part of its special features that contains small write-ups of everyone featured in the film and where they were shortly after the film was completed. If also offers a great glimpse into how the film was made and the immense efforts on both the part of Singer and of those living underground to complete this effort. The soundtrack by DJ Shadow is great and well worth noting.
Living in NYC, one of the most informative segments of this documentary were those that addressed how the city attempts to deal with this "problem of homelessness." One has to wonder why, if someone is content living underground and simply cannot make it "upstairs," it is such a problem to let them stay. Offering help is wonderful, forcefully extracting people from their homes is a horrible act of cruelty. Much along the same lines as forcing someone into a shelter where they will be robbed, raped, and beaten. The only way to "help" those who live underground is to respect them. "Dark Days" is an excellent example of giving this respect and of extending care and friendship to a group of people most of us refuse to acknowledge. It is because of people like Marc Singer that in the days since Times Square has been sanitized, and while the Bowery is shrinking more and more every day, those who live in NYC without a "proper" home will not be overlooked completely.
Summary of Dark Days
"Dark Days" is the multi-award winning documentary from Marc Singer about a community of homeless people living in a train tunnel beneath Manhattan. The film depicts a way of life that is unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty-five years. The director abandoned life on the outside to spend all of his time in the tunnels, making it his home for two years. Surprisingly entertaining and deeply moving, "Dark Days" is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness with the strength and universality of the people the film represents.For two years Marc Singer lived with the people who make their home in the tunnels beneath Penn Station in New York, creating an unflinching portrait of a part of society that is literally and figuratively beneath our notice.
"You'd be surprised what the human mind and body can adjust to," says Tito, one of the tunnel dwellers. He and his neighbors are homeless, but the tunnels offer them a degree of safety that doesn't exist on the streets above. In this strange place they manage to achieve a remarkable degree of domesticity, building shelters, keeping pets, and cooking meals.
Singer has an eye for telling images, such as Dee dragging a sofa along the train tracks like Sisyphus rolling his stone in Hell. With its grainy black-and-white photography and haunting soundtrack, this is a surprisingly beautiful film, but it is never sentimental, nor does it try to impose a false nobility on its subjects. Dark Days simply shows us a world that we never knew existed, and in this simplicity lies its power. --Simon Leake
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