Customer Reviews

Dark Days (Homelessness Documentary) [VHS]

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This documentary won three separate awards in the Sundance Film Festival in 2000. I can well understand why. At that time there was a whole colony of homeless people who lived underground in the subway tunnels in New York City. It was dark and damp and full of rats, but yet they preferred it to a homeless shelter. There, they erected their personal shacks and struggled for survival, venturing out to forage in garbage cans for food as well as for stuff to sell. British Producer Marc Singer was so fascinated by these people that he ventured into these tunnels and spent two years getting to know them. Eventually he wound up living with them and made this film, using the homeless people themselves as crew.

The film is unique in that it shows these homeless people as human beings and the viewer gets to know them as individuals. Yes, many of them have drug problems, but they still have lives, hopes and dreams, a tough will to survive and often a sense of humor. They manage to cook meals on makeshift stoves and there is a feeling of camaraderie among them. We also see their ingenuity with the very little they have. And realize that their days are full of hard work just to survive. The conditions they live in are absolutely squalid. But this is their home.

During the course of the film, Amtrak decided to rid the tunnels of the people and homeless advocates negotiated for them to be placed in real housing. By the end of the film we see them in real apartments. There is an upbeat quality to this ending of the film.

However, the DVD is much more than the actual film. There's a 40-minute interview with the filmmaker, Marc Singer, which is equally as fascinating as the film. I hadn't realized that he was a non-professional person who had never made a film before. He spent all his money on a camera and had to learn how to load the film. He became obsessed with making the film, and became homeless himself after starting to edit the more than 50 hours of film he had shot. There were many delays and setbacks but eventually the film was made and received many accolades.

On the DVD we also get to find out what happened to the many individual homeless people who we got to know through the film. A few had died but most of them had moved on and were leading more productive lives. It felt good to know this and to realize that Marc Jacobs had really done a tremendous good deed by merely making this film. I applaud him in every way. And I also applaud the film. Highly recommended. Especially on DVD with the added features.

Imagine for a moment that you're a regular bloke and you want to do something to help the New York City homeless. You've got very little money, no resources, but a big heart. What could you possibly do to make a dent in their population?

If you're Marc Singer, the man behind this Sundance Award winning documentary, you found a way to do quite a lot.

For a person who'd never touched a movie camera before starting in on this "project", one can see why this film impacts its viewers on multiple levels. Shot in grainy black-and-white 16mm film, this documentary gives us a startlingly real-life look at several homeless people living in self-built shanties in the Amtrak tunnels under the city. No light makes it down there, except whenever a train skirts by or via the makeshift lighting this weird community has produced by tapping into Amtrak's electrical system.

Marc Singer delves into this society. And I mean he DELVES. Mr. Singer gave up living on the surface and slunk into this netherworld for two years in order to shoot his film. And who did he use as grips, sound assistants, and lighting experts? The homeless themselves.

More interesting than the film itself is how it got made. After watching the documentary, I went ahead and looked over the special features on the DVD and found a "Making Of" track which focused on Mr. Singer and how he accomplished his film making. This showed the incredible lack of understanding of anything related to filming and those who helped him out, both in teaching him and by giving him financial help so that the documentary made it out to the public. We also get to see the amazing multiple awards that the documentary won at Sundance; an incredible set of scenes that contrasts starkly with what Mr. Singer had gone through in order to make this film a reality.

Never giving up on his newfound tunnel companions, never letting financial devastation overtake him, never giving up creative control, all added to the success of the film and my enjoyment of all aspects of it. Bravo, Mr. Singer.

(You might be asking what happens to the tunnel-bound homeless. It's a perfect ending to the film, so you'll have to watch it. I ain't giving it away!)

...and finding the mundane.

I would suggest to the people that are slamming this movie that this type of flick is not your cup of tea. Go pop a Matt Damon movie in.

This is a great movie on two fronts. First of all, the camera work and editing is perfect, and secondly, it seems to me that Singer's approach to this film is to simply show the viewer that homeless people are not the paper-thin cliche's that our mind conjures up when we hear the word, but three-dimensional human beings that have the same concerns, and live the same life that any of us do.

What is so incredible about this movie is that you expect to see something truly bizarre occurring in those tunnels, and what you actually see is a group of people, doing their thing, just like anyone else. They are a diverse group, which in itself is unexpected. As the film progresses, their plywood huts really begin to seem like any other community, except in a tunnel. It's surreal.

I don't think for a second that Singer wants us to pity these people, honestly a lot of them aren't doing too bad (considering the circumstances). I think the point here is just to observe, and to see that these "freaks" are pretty much just standard-issue human beings.

One evening I was flipping through channels on the TV and came across "Dark Days" on Sundance Channel. I have not seen the DVD so I can only comment on the version that ran on Sundance. It was the most riveting documentary I have ever seen. Although it has been six months since I caught it on TV, and I haven't been able to catch a rerun since, I have not been able to forget it. I came to care about the people living in the tunnel, and when the film was over, I felt as if I had just lost touch with some friends.

What struck me about this film is that it was made on such a limited budget by people who lived in the tunnel. There were no prima-donna actors, directors and producers. As a result, the film is an honest portrayal of life under the tunnels.

There is excellent information on how the film was made at [web page], and you can also catch some samples of the haunting music from the film.

The film inspired me to learn more about the people living in the tunnels under New York. Two books I would recommend on the subject are "The Mole People" by Jennifer Toth, and "The Tunnel" by Margaret Morton.

The 5-star rating goes to the version I saw in the theatre. I cannot rate the DVD as it has not yet been released. However, this documentary was, without a doubt, one of the single best documentaries I have ever seen.

This story revolves around a group of homeless people in New York who lived underground in old abandoned subway tunnels. What makes their story, and this documentary, most unique is that the director, Marc Singer, actually took his camera and went and lived with these people for a prolonger period of time. (I believe it was 2 years, but I am not sure).

The poignant struggle of their lives provides the backdrop for this documentary. Those of us who think our lives have problems are living in Disneyland compared to the dayto-day lives of these people. To watch their struggle, their small triumphs, their small and large setbacks, will leave you in awe that there are people in our country who actually live like this. It is almost impossible to walk away from this documentary without having it affect your life on a fundamental level.

Three cheers for Marc Singer for making this documentary.

I've always loved documentaries - I feel this movie is essential to anyone else who does. It's beautiful and sad and amazing all at once. I rented it on a whim one night because I thought it sounded interesting. Although I was expecting a more sociological look at the plight of the homeless, I cannot fault this movie for being what it is, because I was really awestruck by it.

Marc Singer is a bloke from England who moved to New York City, saw all these homeless sleeping on the streets, and became friends with them. They in turn trusted him, accepted him as one of their own, and showed him their secret living quarters. Deep underground in abandoned train tunnels, the homeless erected huts out of anything scavenged off the streets. Intelligent and resourceful, they had hooked up to free electricity and had working TV's and stoves.

What makes this documentary five stars instead of four is the making of documentary. Only there do you learn that the movie crew WERE the tunnel folks. Only there do you learn how Singer made this movie with no money, equipment, or knowledge of filmmaking. This movie took six years from start to finish. Unfortunately, it was not the financial success its producers hoped for. But it resonates unbelievably.

The deleted scenes are not to be missed, although some are much better than others. The one where a man talks about how his cousin killed a cat for food, and the scene where two young men talk in X-rated detail about recent sexual activities lent nothing to the film.

How anyone could give this film a bad review is beyond me. One reviewer went so far as to write, "the character development was nill." I think someone is living in a tunnel of their own not to realize that THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY. Anyway, I won't waste time bashing a minority of reviewers.

This is an excellent film. It demonstrates that, to a large extent, our existence is based purely on circumstance. Most of us have been extremely fortunate with the cards we were dealt. But, in a slightly different circumstance in terms of our environment, upbringing, and experience, coupled with just a few bad choices, who knows where we would be.

Many of the people in this film are incredibly intelligent, kind, resourceful and witty. There is so much potential with no means of expression except for survival. The only other thing to say is that right now I appreciate the cards I was dealt and hope I always will.

Marc Singer has guts to crawl down a hole into abandonned subway tunnels in Manhattan and attempt to film the homeless in the dark. It is unbelievable what goes on in our own country in this day and age.

At first glance the characters are a little shady (especially Dee when she's smokin' crack like there's no tomorrow!) ...but by the end of the movie you totally love the characters. All of the homeless people have a story behind them - death of a loved one, abuse, etc. If you lost everything, who's to say you wouldn't end up in a tunnel somewhere homeless. I was amazed at how extensive their squats were. Shacks with electricity, TV's, makeshift toilets. It's hilarious to see how some things they do are completely acceptable and others they do are horrific.(In the special features, Ralph admits his cousin skinned and ate a fat cat once to survive.) The soundtrack enhances the experience as well.

All of the characters are memorable. The best part is seeing all of them move into real apartments and get jobs, etc. It is incredible to see the difference that one person can make. According to the movie, at least eight have gotten off the streets directly because of the filming of the movie. Marc Singer is an inspiration. This movie will definitely affect you one way or another.

People live in the NYC subway. Are you freaking serious? That's awesome! We should all aplaud Marc Singer for making this documentary about real people who live down there. Why? Because I sure as hell wouldn't do it. Have you ever seen a NYC rat? They could eat your foot. Cinematically it doesn't even matter because the story is enough, but Singer does a great job given the circumstances. He even won the cinematography award at Sundance in 2000. I was a little shocked by that one. Just validates the expression, "only two kinds of people can afford to live in New York, millionaires and the homeless." I don't know who said that.