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Dark Days

Play trailer Poster for Dark Days Released Jan 27, 2000 1h 34m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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94% Tomatometer 72 Reviews 89% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
"Dark Days" is a feature length documentary about a community of homeless people living in a train tunnel beneath Manhattan. The film depicts a way of life which is unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. In the pitch blackness of the tunnel rats swarm through piles of garbage and high-speed trains out of Penn station tear through the darkness.
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Dark Days

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Critics Consensus

Marc Singer's documentary about a group of homeless people living beneath the streets of New York City is haunting and uplifting in equal measure.

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Critics Reviews

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Jack Mathews New York Daily News This is the world discovered and illuminated by gonzo documentarian Marc Singer, who spent a good part of two years living with and chronicling the lives of a half-dozen tunnel dwellers for his remarkable first film, Dark Days Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 3, 2014 Full Review David Bianculli New York Daily News Moving and memorable. Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 3, 2014 Full Review Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader The lives of these people inside their shacks are full of surprises as well as grim confirmations, but the things we don't know about them also significantly shape our experience of the film. Mar 3, 2014 Full Review Eve Tushnet Patheos Dark Days is well-paced, knowing when to ramble and when to pull you up short. Great editing. Great choices of which stories to tell on camera. Jul 31, 2023 Full Review Jordan M. Smith IONCINEMA.com Dark Days is an unimaginable story, skillfully documented by a passionate film making novice, and wonderfully scored by the high-profile DJ Shadow. Rated: 4.5/5 Nov 21, 2020 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The documentary is amazing. Rated: B Apr 29, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Heather F This is the documentary that made me interested in documentaries. It's a well-balanced, realistic look at the lives of our unhoused neighbors in New York City's subway and train tunnels in the 1990s. What makes it well-balanced is that it portrays their humanity--although on one level it is devastating to see this way of life, it is no pity party. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/20/24 Full Review Thomas M The best documentary movie ever made! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/25/22 Full Review Audience Member Equal parts inspiring and depressing. A literal subculture beneath the wealth. A side of truth that not many people get to see. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member I've probably had this film on my "to see"-list for 15 years and it was sweet to finally peep it. In Marc Singer's first and only film we enter the underground tunnels of NYC. Things live here. Mostly rats and bugs, but also homeless people and they're dogs. We watch the frustrations, the happiness, the abusiveness and life as a bum in general. There are all kinds of people here, most of them with drug habits, some cleaner than others - but all of them are dirty and with some heavy loads. I like most of the people here. Very true people with some interesting philosophies. It's done in black and white - something that's probalby for the best as everything is dark around there anyways. All the "luxory" surprize me a lot. The way they are always improving the shacks, got TV's and make they're own food. A nice soundtrack by DJ Shadow is a big hit for me as he is one of my favorite artists. He even did a single for this film but most of the songs are taken from previous records. Good documentary with ups, downs, surprizes but firstly very real stories that got something to tell. 7.5 out of 10 rats. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review delysid d Dark Days is a pretty cool homeless documentary. It doesn't really go anywhere but I enjoyed the dark and bleak atmosphere Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/23/17 Full Review Audience Member An amazing documentary from first time director Marc Singer about a community of homeless people living just off the underground subway tracks in NYC. They have built there own shacks and have tapped into the city's power supply. They have scavenged furniture and appliances and live in what are essentially small, scaled-downed homes, some with pets, some with friends. Singer's film making process somewhat mirrored this community as he worked with borrowed and hand-made equipment with essentially no budget. You get to know these people very well, and the film humanizes these people for the viewer. It may not be an explicitly political film, but anything that creates human connections across vast economic divides is doing something political. DJ Shadow provides a remarkable soundtrack. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis "Dark Days" is a feature length documentary about a community of homeless people living in a train tunnel beneath Manhattan. The film depicts a way of life which is unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. In the pitch blackness of the tunnel rats swarm through piles of garbage and high-speed trains out of Penn station tear through the darkness.
Director
Marc Singer
Producer
Marc Singer
Distributor
The Sundance Channel, Columbia Pictures, Palm Pictures
Production Co
Picture Farm
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 27, 2000, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 4, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$436.8K
Runtime
1h 34m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Surround
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.66:1)
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