DARK DAYS review

From time to time you sit in an audience watching a documentary that you just instinctively realize that the film you are watching is going to inevitably be fucked by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

Last night I had the absolute honor of watching a documentary entitled DARK DAYS.

Shot in Black and White and currently without a distributor, DARK DAYS is about those people that live in the subway/train tunnels of New York City. And for this documentary, it's about the residents of one particular AMTRAK tunnel.

In the world, the homeless are often portrayed as those that are just in the corner of your vision. Here, in this movie, that corner of your eye has become the center of attention.

The director of this documentary, Marc Singer, has created a picture where that crack addict isn't just some helpless addict, but a once responsible mother, who lost her children in a terrible fire. How she was a wonderful mother. She loved being a mother. Cherished that moment in the morning where after she fed them breakfast, she'd see them off to school. "To get an education for themselves, so they could be something." After everything was taken away... Next shot, she's taking a hit on the crack pipe, the repeated flicking of the lighter flame... again and again and again... lung full after lung full of the addictful smoke. And suddenly right there... you see why she picked up the pipe and moved several stories beneath the surface of New York. And suddenly it doesn't seem so unlikely anymore.

This is also not a movie about pity. There are multiple folks that show an extreme amount of resiliance and strength. Becoming capitalist... searching through the garbage of New York.... finding the tossed $3 bills of cds, books, porn magazines. Finding the freshly tossed out doughnuts of a local bakery.. and the pure joy that that brought.

It's not politically correct, it's real. The film is about the struggle to remain human even amongst the discarded rubble and the scurrying of hungry rats.... lots of them.

Cinematically, the film is awesome. Sound wise, the film is awesome. The score, by DJ SHADOW, is awesome. In every facet of a film... this movie is awesome.

And currently the movie is WITHOUT DISTRIBUTION. Apparently there has been interest... there have been negotiations... This film and the work of Marc Singer should be recognized with the highest of rewards.

The story of how the film came to be, should be spoken of in front of every television camera, on every news station.

A man who became a mole in the aspiration to bring them all out into the light through cinema. And... Well, go see this movie as soon as you can. Write down the title. Mark it in your memory. This film will get distribution, and then it's up to you. As brilliant a documentary... a film as you will see. I can't say enough good about it.