Dark Days
Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, New York City in USA, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this “family.” A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they’ve built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.
- Marc Singer had never been a filmmaker prior to this project. He had moved underground to the tunnels as a lifestyle choice, and when he and his friends were sitting around one night, someone had said, according to Singer, “Hey we should make a film about this,” and tell their stories. Singer’s original hope was that the film would get some attention and help get the people out of the tunnels and into better, safer places. It did.
- Marc Singer had never been a filmmaker prior to this project. He had moved underground to the tunnels as a lifestyle choice, and when he and his friends were sitting around one night, someone had said, according to Singer, “Hey we should make a film about this,” and tell their stories. Singer’s original hope was that the film would get some attention and help get the people out of the tunnels and into better, safer places. It did.