Marc Singer’s “Dark Days” is as relevant today as it was 24 years ago

Marc Singer wanted something big. After growing up in London, England and briefly finishing high school in Florida, Singer moved to New York City to work as a model. Singer became interested in the lives of Manhattan’s homeless population and spent time with new friends he met in a homeless community, in camps they had built for themselves in Amtrak tunnels under Manhattan. After about four months of building relationships within this community, Singer decided to document their lives with a film. The film documentary was called Dark days.

Since Singer had no formal film training and had to film in an environment unsuitable for a formal film crew, he used the protagonists of his film as his crew. While he transported the camera equipment up stairs and rickety ladders into this dark environment, Singer got help from his new friends to get power for the lighting and sound recording for his film. While he was not a trained filmmaker, Singer possessed perhaps the most important skill of a documentary filmmaker – the ability to embed oneself in one’s topics and build the trust they need to feel comfortable telling their incredible life stories.

The history of the underground in dark days

The homeless underground population in New York City was nothing new. In fact, these social outcasts had made their home in the tunnels of the New York City subway and Amtrak train for years. Legends grew around their lives, and these social pariahs were given derogatory names like “mole people.” But in the film’s opening scenes, we quickly learn that most people had moved to the tunnels because they offered a safe haven from the violence and cold winters. It quickly became clear that these people were not necessarily drug addicts or criminals, but well-meaning outcasts who had fallen through the financial cracks of a rapidly gentrifying city.

Singer pointed his camera at some individuals among the larger homeless community in the Amtrak tunnels. Some had lived there for years, tapping electricity from the city grid to cut each other’s hair and play music while using buckets as toilets and living among vermin – in an effort to maintain their self-esteem. During filming, these tunnel dwellers received a 30-day eviction notice from city workers after returning from a normal day of rummaging through garbage and begging in the streets above. Suddenly, the documentary had a clear antagonist.

Dark Days is a very well made documentary

Dark days

Duration

1 hour 22 minutes

director

Marc Singer

Summary

A cinematic portrait of the homeless who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

Part of the brilliance of Dark days is the cinematographyshot on grainy, beautiful black and white film. At one point during filming, Singer made a breakthrough. He built an old manual railroad car as a camera dolly right on the tracks, allowing for incredible shots as the camera moved sideways through the tunnels, illuminating the dilapidated warehouses and oil drum fires that pierced the darkness. These amazing moving images are accompanied by a ’90s hip-hop soundtrack by the orchestral-minded DJ Shadow, who used piano samples and record scratching to compose a score that perfectly matches the film’s dark background.

Although it is rarely considered one of the best documentaries of all time, Dark days could be more relevant than almost any film documenting the lives of Americans. 20 years after its release, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in homelessness in America. Federal officials have estimated that homelessness has increased by 12% during the pandemic as lockdowns drove many Americans living paycheck to paycheck into tents and encampments scattered throughout major cities across the United States.

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In cities like Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a wave of homeless citizens has been forced under countless freeway underpasses and into skid row neighborhoods. In addition, the fentanyl and amphetamine epidemics cast a dark shadow over American places, both rural and urban. Dark Days’ The epicenter, New York City, is also suffering from this plague: more and more individuals and families are living on the streets in a city where there is hardly any public housing and fewer and fewer resources available for the many homeless.

Dark days was published in 2000. The film won three awards at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. (Audience Award: Documentary, Award for Outstanding Cinematography: Documentary and Freedom of Expression Award). Marc Singer did not have a great film career because he was a filmmaker out of necessity – not by choice. He gave voice to the suffering of his friends, and the film’s crescendo gave a happy ending to a few he met in those tunnels – but they were an exception to the rule.

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Ten years after the film’s release, Oscilloscope Laboratories remastered the film and released it on a larger scale. Adam Yauch, known from the Beastie Boys, who had co-developed Oscilloscope, recognized the importance of the film. In 2011, Marc Singer was awarded the 10th anniversary of Dark days‘ release, saying, “I’m not afraid of the unknown, so what’s the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is that you die, no matter what the situation, and if you’re not afraid of that, then there’s not much that can hold you back.” That intrepid spirit resulted in one of the greatest and most underrated documentaries of the 2000s – one that deserves far more recognition today. Electricity Dark days on peacock.