Dark Days

Theatrical Release Date: 2000 08 30 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 896602002364

Studio: Oscilloscope

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:null

Summary: Novice filmmaker Marc Singer lived in the bowels of a midtown Manhattan railway station for two years to shoot this harrowing account of the day-to-day existence of the homeless. Shot in noirish black and white, Singer shows how society's discarded and disenfranchised fashion a community of sorts in the sunless labyrinth of the station's transit tunnels. Though told without narration, a dozen or so individual stories emerge. Dee (the sole woman depicted in the film) lost all her children in a house fire while she was high on crack; Ralph remains inconsolable after his five-year old's rape and mutilation during a stint in prison. In the final reel, Amtrak sends in armed police to clean out the tunnels, citing health concerns. However, the subterranean tenets happen upon a stroke of luck, as an NYC social worker discovers a cache of previously unclaimed public housing. Featuring a sparse soundtrack by DJ Shadow, Dark Days won the Grand Jury prize for cinematography, the Freedom of Expression award, and an audience award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Category: Culture & Society

Awards: Cinematography Award: Documentary – Sundance Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award – Sundance Film Festival Audience Award – Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Independent Spirit Awards

Features: Disc One - Dark Days - Audio Commentary with Director Marc Singer

Disc Two -
Deleted Scenes
The Making of Dark Days (2000), Interviews with Marc Singer, DJ Shadow
The Tunnel Today - Director Marc Singer Revisits the Tunnel in 2011
Fragile Dwelling - an all-new photo essay featuring photographs by Margarget Morton

Dark Days Design - a look at the typography with Jay Hillyer

Life After the Tunnel - An Update on the Residents

Introduction with former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and Q&A with Singer and Executive Director of Coalition for the Homeless Mary E. Brosnahan at the Maysles Cinema in 2011

Original Theatrical Trailer

Dark Days

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 07/19/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Alternate Wide Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 84 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English

Region: Universal Compatability

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Dark Days - Main Feature
1. Going Underground [5:13]
2. Morning [4:24]
3. "Gotta Make A Dollar" [5:27]
4. Addiction [3:35]
5. Dumpster Diving [6:00]
6. "Growin' Down Here" [4:12]
7. Pets [4:58]
8. "You're On Your Own" [4:14]
9. Rats [7:56]
10. Support [4:43]
11. Ralph's Story [4:38]
12. Waste [2:26]
13. Dee's Story [2:48]
14. "Leave Us Alone" [3:31]
15. "I'll Ride The Train" [3:30]
16. Coalition [4:41]
17. "Dark Days" [5:31]
18. End Credits [4:07]

Jonathan Crow

Recalling the films of Robert Frank, Dark Days is a compassionate and haunting portrait of a subterranean community of the homeless. The two years director Marc Singer spent living in the catacombs of New York's train tunnels dumpster-diving for food clearly paid off: Singer's documentary boasts a surprising intimacy between his homeless subjects and the camera -- on numerous occasions they banter as freely with Singer as they do with each other. The director manages to draw out some exchanges that are both funny --as when Lee gives a rambling but impassioned speech about his decreased pets -- and horrific -- as when Ralph recalls his child's rape and dismemberment. The past for many of the tunnel people is a constant source of torment, be it Dee's loss of her children to a house fire or the disintegration of Ralph's marriage due to crack. In spite of the bad air, perpetual darkness, and rats, most subterranean dwellers argue that life in the tunnel is infinitely preferable to the streets, where they are prey to crime and the elements. Beneath Manhattan, they have constructed shanties out of lumber and cardboard and furnished them with TVs, powered straight off the city's grid. Their daily life makes up a large part of the film's structure: we see how they eat, shower, and kill time. One character points out the best dumpster in which to find good food, arguing that the grub is not only clean, but kosher too, while another has managed to construct a shower of sorts from a leaking water main. Thanks to Singer's stark black and white cinematography, Dark Days has the claustrophobic quality of the bottom of the ocean, which adds to its taunt intensity. Although its ending is oddly mushy and seemingly inconsistent with the rest of the work, Dark Days is a powerful document of humanity's will to survive and a first-rate piece of urban ethnography. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Marc Singer  Actor 
Paolo Seganti  Executive Producer 
Morton Swinsky  Executive Producer 
Marc Singer  Director 
Marc Singer  Producer 
DJ Shadow  Composer (Music Score) 

Country: USA