Dark Days (2000)

Hope For Lighter Days

I found this documentary very interesting. I couldn't believe how well these homeless people could get along in the subway tunnels. But I also found it very sad. All of the homeless people have a sad story. All of them ran out of hope and faith and ended up there. Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's well worth watching. September 25, 2008

a tip of the hat to Marc Sanger

Marc Sanger can be applauded for his outstanding heartopening documentary on a group of people living under a tunnel in New York City. Watching the DVD we get to know each of the characters and see ourselves as one of the same. They bleed and have a beating heart like all of us yet many of us close our eyes when we pass them by on the street corner. After being turned off by the educational system and the contradictions of our present society I left college and traveled across the country. I found my home on the streets of Berkeley California. Living out of my backpack I slept next to junkies and broke bread with abandon war vets. I know from my experience that many of those on the street have dreams and wisdom that rises above the average well to do human being. Marc Sanger gives the viewer the opportunity to become aware of one of the United States Of America most neglected epidemics. It would profit many in our own country if we left our homes and ate at a soup kitchen. Then maybe some of us that fail to appreciate what we take for granted would do so. June 22, 2008

Homeless, yes; helpless, no

Ready for a wonderland?
Early in the film, a homeless man uncovers a passage and lowers himself into an Amtrak tunnel--home to residents of a long-standing shanty town. What follows is, at times, wrenching: the interview with the woman whose children were killed in a house fire; tender: the man with pictures of his favorite pets; revolting: the cuts to the lighter snapped on, then on again, then on again, then on again, then on again--always lighting another crack pipe.
The neighborhood is broken up--you decide if it is an act of compassion or an act of cruelty--when Amtrak officials evict the squatters. After the residents are filmed destroying their shacks--you decide if the destruction of these shelters is in celebration or in anger--the film updates the lives of some of the residents. You decide if this lifestyle--scavenging for discarding food, hunting dumpsters for gay porn to sell; improvising alarms to protect themselves-- has been hurtful or helpful to the former residents. (Can our prisons boast of such success? Our schools?) June 10, 2008

Very Interesting, Quite Surprising.

"Dark Days" is a documentary where the film maker follows the lives of several people who live within the subway tunnels of New York City. This documentary gives an up close and personal look of how these people live and survive. The most surprising thing you take away from this movie is that although many of these people have problems (substance abuse, family, mental) they are surprisingly human and easy to relate to. The "houses" that these people build in the tunnels are amazing with everything from TV to running water. If you want to watch a truly interesting and surprising documentary, this is it.

5 Out of 5 Stars. February 5, 2008

Excellent

As even the negative reviewers have been picking up on, this film was beautifully captured, and reminded me very much of Jem Cohen's documentary work which is breathtaking (albeit in a very raw form).

Singer (the director) spent about 2.5 year living with and being with people living in the Amtrak tunnel in small 'houses' that they had built, showing the very real community that thrived there. IMPORTANT: watch the 'making of' documentary that's in the extra features, which in a much clearer way shows just how involved Singer became in these people's lives. He didn't shoot a documentary about "those people," he shot a documentary about his friends who happened to have lived in a tunnel (some upwards of 25 years).

This is not the flick to watch if you're bored and want something to liven up your life: it won't. This is very much a mood piece, and you need to be in the right mood (i.e., sort of dark and moody). This documentary leaves a lot of loose ends. If you don't like living with that kind of tension, you may not like the film: don't watch it. If you can handle the tension, and are willing to enter a film that mimicks the world it's portraying, then watch this film: it's a beautiful work. November 19, 2007

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