Marc Singer’s DARK DAYS looks at people living in underground tunnels below Penn Station
DARK DAYS (Marc Singer, 2000)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, July 1
212-924-3363
www.cinemavillage.com
www.darkdays.com
The award-winning documentary Dark Days takes a frightening look at a community of homeless men and women — many of them former or current crack users — who live in the Amtrak tunnels beneath Penn Station. They sleep in tents, cardboard shacks, and small plywood shanties, some of which have been painted and decorated. As the belowground residents shave, cook, play with their pets, and take showers under leaking pipes, trains speed by, and rats scavenge through the countless mounds of garbage. At times some of the men venture aboveground (“up top”) to go through trash cans, mostly looking for recyclable bottles and junk items they can resell. First-time filmmaker Marc Singer became a part of this colony for two years (he initially went down to help the people, not to film them), getting the residents to open up and tell their fascinating stories, which turn out to be filled with a surprising zest for living. In fact, all of the underground shooting was completed with the help of the subjects themselves acting as the crew when they were not on camera. DJ Shadow composed the haunting music for this strangely enriching look at a mysterious, truly terrifying part of New York City. Dark Days celebrates its tenth anniversary with a theatrical run beginning July 1 at Cinema Village in advance of the July 19 release of the special-edition DVD, which includes featurettes on the making of the film, an update on many of the characters, Singer revisiting the tunnels, a photo essay by Margaret Morton, and more.