Dark Days (2000)

Marc Singer claims he didn't know what he was doing when he shot DARK DAYS, which is why he filmed it in black and white.It's an astonishing claim, and I don't know what's MORE astonishing. . .the fact he really means this, or his movie.Marc Singer goes down into the Amtrak tunnels beneath Riverside Park in New York City, and enters the world of the so-called "mole people," as they are referred to by those of us in NY who have heard about the tunnel dwellers, but have never actually seen them.In the grainy beauty of black and white (and I can't imagine this story having been filmed in color), he submerges us in the world of a group of homeless, who have built their shanty town in the relative safety of the train tunnels. Able to get electricity by tapping into cables and trickles of water from the pipes running over head, they form a community that in some ways, is not too different from any other community, except that these are people who have reached the place we all dread. It's the twilight world of homelessness, the world where 99.9% of the rest of the population doesn't acknowledge you except maybe to toss a few coins your way on a cold night.The people in it are unforgettable, and I defy anyone to watch DARK DAYS and walk by a homeless person without realizing that there sits a human being, not just a cast off piece of furniture. Completely absorbing, wrenching, and ultimately heartening. Not just worth watching, but worth owning.

This movie really moved me and it makes me angry that our government can't provide some sort of shelter for people down on their luck. It was obvious that all of these people were just normal people like everyone else and just needed a place to stay.Our government takes all these taxes but can't provide anything for the residents of this country in hard times.The movie interviewed about 10 or 15 main people and showed how they lived from day to day. It really showed that these people were not so different from anyone else and how they just ended up down in the tunnels by accident. I thought this might be kind of boring since it was a documentary but it wasn't. It was a very interesting and well put together. I think the work put into this movie is why it didn't have the usual boring documentary format. The movie maker himself almost ended up down in the tunnels while trying to make this movie!This movie is a real work of art, lots of love was put into the making of this movie, with real people and real situations.

Dark Days is a low key, moving documentary that changed my preconceived views of homeless people. The fact that this film was made by a first-time director on a shoestring budget serves as a stark reminder of the power of the moving image to enlighten us all. The entire film is shot in black and white, and much of it is set in the squalid train tunnels and makeshift dwelling under New York. I doubt many people even knew that human beings lived down there. Although viewing the film is somewhat grim, there is a message of hope in the end. Regardless of your political persuasion and views on homelessness, I challenge anyone not to be deeply affected by this film. Highly recommended.

I just came across this gem of a movie on cable last night. I'm not a social activist and I don't particularly have a soft spot in my heart for the homeless. I lived in San Francisco for a while and I got pan handled by at least 20 people a day walking back and forth to the train...usually much more then 20 people , so that made disillusioned pretty quickly. But watching this movie did exactly what Marc Singer set out to do...made me sympathetic to these individuals in the film regardless of my preconceptions about the homeless in the United States. Yes, most of the people in this film certainly didn't make the right decisions in life, some were openly smoking crack on camera and most definitely were not educated. But it made me realize that we all make some mistakes and it is possible for some of those mistakes to spiral into their situations.The "characters" in the film were all much more articulate then I would have expected from some homeless people. They all told their individual stories but none of them tried to make any excuses for things they've done in the past to get them where they were which is what I think ultimately made me feel sympathetic to them.But it was the style of this film that really sucked me in before the characters and subject matter did. It was beautifully shot on B&W film which was impressive considering the lighting issues inside the tunnel. The soundtrack from DJ Shadow was also excellent and really added to the mood of this film. Overall, a great doc. I recommend it to everyone.