Tunnel vision

>> First-time director Marc Singer probes the homeless underground in Dark Days

by MATTHEW HAYS

The scenario recalls that old saw about "if you put it in a fictional screenplay, no one would ever believe it."

But here they are: a bunch of homeless people, apparently desperate for a safe place to settle, find a suitable enclave deep in the Manhattan subway system. There, they create a shantytown of sorts, a messy collection of living units built out of garbage. They syphon electricity off some power lines in order to run their hot plates and even a TV set. They scrounge for food for themselves and their pet dogs. They fend off the rats.

It's pretty nasty stuff, life as one might expect in the bowels of a subway system, and it's all brought to graphic life in Marc Singer's amazing debut feature film, Dark Days. After an award-winning premiere at Sundance, the film is now garnering rave reviews as a landmark film on its topic, drawing comparisons to Streetwise, Martin Bell's exemplary '84 doc on Seattle's homeless.

Strange days indeed

Singer's story is itself rather bizarre. After "taking the wrong track" in his home town of London, England, Singer decided to move to Florida, where he attended school at 17. After living in Miami, he decided to move to Manhattan's East Village, where he managed to get some fashion modelling work. But Singer says he was always fascinated by those on the fringe, and found himself befriending a number of the city's numerous homeless folk. He says a number of them spoke to him about a homeless colony located in the city's subway system. The stuff Wes Craven movies are made of, but not so fantastical when one considers the desperation many destitute New Yorkers face.

Sure enough, in the tunnels between 72nd and 125th Streets were a small community of over 75 people living in a township of their own creation. After spending some time with them, Singer soon found himself hooked on the idea of making a film about their plight, with his ultimate goal being to find them real housing. Along the way, he hoped to educate an audience about the people he'd met, in the same way that they'd educated him. "I learned a great deal by being with them," he says, his British accent still thick now, six years after starting the project. "Journalism on the homeless tends to be the same old shit. I

didn't want it to be like that. I didn't want to make a film about a bunch of people feeling sorry for themselves, rather a group trying to make the best for themselves considering their circumstances."

Despite Singer's statement about homeless pride, it's tough not to feel mighty sorry for the people he profiles during the bulk of the film. Singer lets his camera roll as the tunnel-dwellers tell their stories, which are usually sad and often horrific. Many are addicts--some to crack, others simply to alcohol--and one woman recounts losing both her children in a housefire while she was high. It's a brutal moment, a point where her life's plot-points actually add up to make sense of a homeless existence.

Coping mechanisms

Still, they cope. The film shows dwellers emptying the bucket they use for a toilet while complaining about the smell. (One can only be thankful this wasn't shot in Odorama.) It also features a scene of someone showering, having ingeniously tapped into a clean water supply from one of the pipes running through the tunnel. Another nasty bit of survival occurs when a man strikes gold--a garbage bag full of unfinished meals tossed out of a local restaurant.

Singer reports that working with the homeless was "fantastic." There was a strong sense of camaraderie with them, he says, and they also served as his crew, helping him to build a dolly for tracking shots. "They made me feel accepted as a person. I even lived down there for several months. It was easier to gain trust when you live in their situation. When you're shitting in a bucket too, they can't say that you don't know what it's like."

If Singer would begin another project like Dark Days today, he realizes the pressure to use cheaper digital video would be great. But he says he would still fight to use film (Dark Days is shot on 16mm). "Film is beautiful, organic and more human. There's something really horrid about video, I find."

The creative part of filmmaking he found "fantastic--challenging, but fantastic. I didn't like going to bed at night and couldn't wait to get up in the morning." But the counterpoint came with virtually every filmmaker's number-one complaint: "The money. Anything you put your heart into, when you can't get the money for it, it hurts. There were many points during the filming when I ran out of money. It was very tough indeed."

Gimme shelter

While praise for the film has been loud, Dark Days has taken its knocks for a finale that involves Amtrack kicking the homeless out of their digs. In a nice twist, the Coalition for the Homeless managed to help relocate the residents into actual above-ground legit housing units. A number of critics have complained that the conclusion is simply too simple. "I guess that comes from where the person is coming from," says Singer. "It never happened before that an entire community is offered housing like that. I think people should have focussed on the fact that that's what should be happening." Singer has stayed in touch with many of the film's subjects and says that they are spread throughout the country, a number of them doing "amazingly well."

Ironically enough, Singer, who remains heavily in debt from making Dark Days, now finds himself without a home. Instead, he's staying "on a hundred different friends' couches" while planning his next move.

"Right now, though, I need a break."

Dark Days opens Friday, April 27 at Ex-Centris