Dark Days

Watched a good documentary this weekend - Dark Days (2000) by Marc Singer. It's a film about the mole people (homeless heroin addicts) who live in the tunnels underneath New York city and their lives underground: how they build homes for themselves, and the simple acts that give them power over their lives and also emphasize the universal need we all share for a sense of home.

As we shift through the dark space of their world that is at once claustrophobic and cavernous, we see the mundane rituals of ordinary life play out: cooking, raising pets, cleaning, showering. The men (and one woman) of this film speak of a life lived autonomous from societal intervention. One senses that the filmmaker, and more adamantly the homeless themselves, are trying to convince us that here in the subterranean garbage disposal of life, their needs are being met by the trash of the world that is chewed up and spit out. In the film, these leftovers become a metaphor for the people themselves - as they revel in finding a treasure of discarded donuts left in a trash bin or show their opportunistic nature by collecting cans for cash to buy heroin. So our waste turns into their livelihood. We see them cook cornbread as they settle down for the night in front of their TV, radio or space heater. "We're not homeless," one man tells us, "homeless is when you don't have a home." But then his friend corrects him. "Nah, you're still homeless. You just ain't helpless." But as the film progresses, we start to perceive something in the darkness, something invisible around the edges that keeps them buried underground; it's their addiction to drugs, and the memories of past lives that are fraught with anguish and suffering. They are lost souls - shadow people moving through an ethereal, timeless landscape. I won't tell you anything else about the film, so in case you haven't seen it yourself, I won't be spoiling it for you.

One note though, I didn't love the ending - but I forgive Mr. Singer who, after all, had never made a movie before, and lived underground for years while shooting this documentary and used the homeless people around him as his film crew. I can't blame him for needing this ending, nor am I sure I would have chosen differently. See what you think.

To read more about Marc Singers experience while making his movie check out Austin Chronicle article with director Marc Singer.