Synopsis:

Few directorial debuts have been as unusual as that of Marc Singer, whose documentary film Dark Days follows the lives of the homeless people living in the train tunnels beneath Manhattan, engaged in a way of life unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. Singer shot and lived in the tunnels on and off for more than two years and ended up with about 50 hours of footage. The film was made with the full co-operation of the tunnel community, who also made up his entire crew, from sound-recordists to electricians, as they used their own range of skills to set up lighting rigs, dollies, and electrical wiring, mostly without the use of tools or real grip equipment. During the time of shooting, the rail company Amtrak instigated proceedings to evict the residents and Marc worked closely with the Coalition for the Homeless to ensure that they were all integrated back into society. Once shooting had finished, Singer taught himself how to edit, and cut the film with editor Melissa Neidich (Soul in the Hole) for another year and a half, interrupted by long periods of being cashless. The result of Singer's painstaking process is a dreamlike journey to and from an emotional and physical purgatory. It is not an advocacy film with an overarching political agenda; rather the subjects' stories and their sensitive treatment by Singer are testament to more creative, gentler solutions to the problem of homelessness. Singer is more interested in humanity than in politics, and everyone in the film is an individual, each with their own story to tell. Enhanced by a score from DJ Shadow, the stark black and white imagery captures a sense of surviving against the odds.

Synopsis:

Few directorial debuts have been as unusual as that of Marc Singer, whose documentary film Dark Days follows the lives of the homeless people living in the train tunnels beneath Manhattan, engaged in a way of life unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. Singer shot and lived in the tunnels on and off for more than two years and ended up with about 50 hours of footage. The film was made with the full co-operation of the tunnel community, who also made up his entire crew, from sound-recordists to electricians, as they used their own range of skills to set up lighting rigs, dollies, and electrical wiring, mostly without the use of tools or real grip equipment. During the time of shooting, the rail company Amtrak instigated proceedings to evict the residents and Marc worked closely with the Coalition for the Homeless to ensure that they were all integrated back into society. Once shooting had finished, Singer taught himself how to edit, and cut the film with editor Melissa Neidich (Soul in the Hole) for another year and a half, interrupted by long periods of being cashless. The result of Singer's painstaking process is a dreamlike journey to and from an emotional and physical purgatory. It is not an advocacy film with an overarching political agenda; rather the subjects' stories and their sensitive treatment by Singer are testament to more creative, gentler solutions to the problem of homelessness. Singer is more interested in humanity than in politics, and everyone in the film is an individual, each with their own story to tell. Enhanced by a score from DJ Shadow, the stark black and white imagery captures a sense of surviving against the odds.