Dark Days [2 Discs]

Marc Singer

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/19/2011
UPC:	0896602002364
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	NR
Source:	Oscilloscope
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	45,488

Special 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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

DJ Shadow

Composer

Technical Credits

Randall Mesdon	Executive Producer
Gordon Paul	Executive Producer
Paolo Seganti	Executive Producer
Marc Singer	Producer,Director
Morton Swinsky	Executive Producer
Barbara Parks	Sound Editor
Peter Levin	Sound Editor
Ben Freedman	Producer

Scene Index

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]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Dark Days - Main Feature
   Play Film
   Chapters
   Set Up
      Audio Options
         Stereo
         5.1
         Audio Commentary With Director Marc Singer
      Subtitles
         English Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired
            English Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired: On
            English Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired: Off
   Extra Features
      Audio Commentary With Director Marc Singer (2000): On/Off
   Oscilloscope Releases
      Trailers
         Dark Days
         Gunnin' For That #1 Spot
         No Impact Man
         Beautiful Losers
         Exit Through The Gift Shop
Disc #2 -- Dark Days: Extra Features
   Extra Features
      Deleted Scenes
         Ralph's Cousin
            Play
         Tommy And Shim
            Play
         Ralph's Toilet
            Play
         Clarence And Greg - Rat Shit
            Play
         Henry's Hands
            Play
         Ralph's Haircut
            Play
         Julio And Lee's Rat
            Play
         Tommy And Henry Painting
            Play
         Clarence And Greg
            Play
         Ronnie And His Carts
            Play
         Tommy And Welfare
            Play
         Ronnie: Clever, Cool, And Calm
            Play
         Brian: Two Sides
            Play
         Clarence And Danny
            Play
         Jose Moving Out
            Play
      The Making Of Dark Days
         Play
      The Tunnel Today
         Play
      Fragile Dwelling
         Play
      Dark Days Title Design
      Life After The Tunnel
      Q&A At Maysles Cinema
         Play
      Original Theatrical Trailer

Editorial Reviews

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.

All Movie Guide - Jonathan Crow