Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15224 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-01-21
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For two years Marc Singer lived with the people who make their home in the tunnels beneath Penn Station in New York, creating Dark Days, an unflinching portrait of a part of society that is literally and figuratively beneath our notice. "You'd be surprised what the human mind and body can adjust to," says Tito, one of the tunnel dwellers. Along with his neighbours he is homeless, but the tunnels offer them a degree of safety that doesn't exist on the streets above. In this strange place they manage to achieve a remarkable degree of domesticity, building shelters, keeping pets and cooking meals. Singer has an eye for telling images, such as Dee dragging a sofa along the train tracks like Sisyphus rolling his stone in Hell. With its grainy black-and-white photography and haunting soundtrack, this is a surprisingly beautiful film, but it is never sentimental, nor does it try to impose false nobility on its subjects. Dark Days shows a world that we never knew existed, and in this simplicity lies its power. --Simon Leake

Video Description
In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty-five years.

Deeply moving and surprisingly entertaining, Dark Days is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness by revealing a thriving community living in tunnels beneath New York City and honestly capturing their resilience and strength in their struggle to survive.

Haunting soundtrack by DJ Shadow.

DVD Special Features:
The Making of "Dark Days" - 45 minute documentary. Includes interviews with director Marc Singer, DJ Shadow, Ben Freedman and more.
Commentary by Marc Singer.
Never-before-seen footage - 15 additional scenes with notes by Marc Singer.
The history of the NYC subway tunnels.
Life After The Tunnel - follow up by Marc Singer.
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.
Digitally mastered/16.9 widescreen version.
Crew biographies.
Scene access.
Theatrical trailer and more.

Synopsis
DARK DAYS, a groundbreaking documentary from British director Marc Singer, shows a way of life that is unimaginable to most people. The film, which features a moving soundtrack from DJ Shadow, focuses on a group of homeless people that live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. During the daytime they scavenge for food on the streets of New York. At night, they retreat to the tunnel where they have built homes out of scrap metal, plastic, and plywood. The residents have electricity, furniture, and working kitchens, not to mention community, comradery, and the support of each other. Some of them have lived in the tunnel for 25 years.
Shot in vivid black and white, capturing both the grit (chicken wire, concrete walls, ramshackle shelters) and the honesty (the residents have hit rock bottom and admit it) of the tunnel, Singer's film consists of candid conversations with tunnel dwellers, who are intelligent, funny, optimistic, and above all, human. One man confesses that he once had a wife and a child, and that he lost both to his drug addiction (crack cocaine), while one teenage boy living in the tunnel explains that he was abused by his family in Florida and simply ran away, finding life in the tunnel more redeeming. In the film's emotional, understated conclusion, Singer, who actually resided in the tunnel while making DARK DAYS, turns to New York City's Coalition for the Homeless for help.

Customer Reviews

Interesting documentary with a great soundtrack
As above, I bought this as a DJ Shadow fan mainly to hear the soundtrack but I found the documentary really interesting learning about these guys who live in an underground world, most people would never hear about something like this without watching the dvd. Worth a couple of quid and would definitely pass the time for you.

A Fascinating look at life on the other side of the tracks
Its incredible to hear some of the stories the people involved in this film have to tell, their take on the world, how they make their money and how they came to be homeless.

I would definately recommend

Amazing
This is a film about an aspect of life which is completely alien to most of us: homelessness. It is a film about people who are living on the edge or, to be more precise, in a railway tunnel. The main character, Greg, is an improbably chirpy man. In fact, the resilience of this group of homeless people is amazing. However, the purpose of this film is not just to provide the viewer with a possibly voyeuristic glimpse into an unknown world; it is the means by which these people are able to abandon this bleak existence. Amazingly, nearly all of the participants were able to return to a normal existence above ground.