My Favorite Answers

            Q1. What did you learn from the movie?

There are many things that I learned from watching the documentary “Dark Days” directed by Marc Singer including a new understanding of how homeless people live and how their life is a constant struggle. But I think the most important thing that I learned from watching this film was to not take the life I was given for granted, because life could me much, much worse. This documentary really opened my eyes to an entirely different world, the world of the homeless. Honestly, before I watched this documentary I had never really thought about the battle that homeless people fight everyday, but after viewing this film I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s constantly on my mind. I learned how homeless people will rummage through garbage just to find a few dollars worth of what they would consider treasure, but the average American would consider trash (Dark Days). I also learned that some homeless people, such as the ones in this documentary, would rather live in a dark, disgusting tunnel than in a homeless shelter, where at least they would have a nice meal and a warm bed. This fact really made me think, and I came to the conclusion that some homeless people really want to be self-reliant and do not want to have to rely on others to help them. This shows that they are strong willed people.

Q2. What surprised you?

What surprised me about the documentary “Dark Days” was the fact that human beings, just like you and me, were living in conditions that I would consider not suitable for any human to live in. Something that surprised me even more was the fact that the people living in those conditions where not even trying to change the way they lived. They were complacent and really showed no desire to change the life that they were living. This was a huge surprise to me because from what I understand it is human nature to want to try and better your life and not just accept the hand that was dealt to you, especially when the hand dealt to you is a two and a seven. A two and a seven, for anybody that does not understand what I mean is the worst possible hand that can be dealt to someone in Texas Hold’em poker (Bochan).

Q3. What questions remain after the viewing?

After finishing “Dark Days” there are still a few lingering questions in my mind. These are questions that I would ask Marc Singer the director of “Dark Days”. Where did the idea to film how homeless people lived come from? Why did you decide to make the movie in black and white when you could have made it in color? How many people lived in the tunnel, was it only the people shown in the documentary or were there others? Did you film everything that happened in the tunnel or did you leave certain things out? Did you actually live in the tunnel along side of the homeless, to get the entire experience or did you stay in some big, fancy hotel? The last question that I would ask Marc is would he ever consider filming another documentary like “Dark Days”?

These are questions that I would ask the homeless people if I had a chance to speak with some of them. How did you feel when some guy came down into the tunnel and asked if it was all right to film how you lived?  At first did you want to be filmed of did you what to be left alone to live your life? Was there any time during the filming process that you wanted Marc Singer to stop filming and leave you alone? If so, when? How did you feel when the news came in that you were going to be evicted from the tunnel? The last question I would ask them is if they had the chance to go back in time and change one thing in there life’s what would that one thing be?

Q6. Was there a specific scene or segment that stayed with you and caused you to be curious? delighted? angry? motivated?

Yes, there actually was one particular scene in the film that has stuck with me and that scene is when Marc Singer is filming Julio and Lee. In the scene Julio is the only one talking, but he cannot finish any of his sentences. Lee is sitting next to him and is just laughing at him has he tells Marc about his pet cats. I suspect that they were both high and both of their minds were shot from abusing drugs. This scene stuck with me because all I could think about was how I felt sorry for those two men. It almost even made me feel angry because I knew that these guys had ruined their entire lives and there was nothing that I could have done to prevent it.

Works Cited

Bochan, Toby. “Top 10 Worst Starting Hands in Texas Hold’em”. About. n.p, n.d. Web. 28 January 2015.

Dark Days. Dir. Marc Singer. Picture Farm, 2000. Film.   

Further Reaction to "Dark Days"

It has been a couple of days sense I viewed "Dark Days" and randomly the thought of those poor homeless people still pops into my head. Every time I think about it makes me feel sad for not only the people in the film but also for all of the homeless people that where not lucky enough to be in this film. I say not lucky enough because at the end of the film the homeless people were put into apartments. When I view a film and a couple days later I am still thinking about it, that means that the film really brought out emotions from me. And his film surely did that. 

What I liked most about this film was that it was not staged or at least did not appear to be staged. It did not leave anything out. It shows exactly how the people in the tunnel survived, how they rummage through garbage just to find food, how they lived with rats as their neighbors, and how all most all of them were addicted to drugs. It showed how most of them were accepting the life that they were living and were not even trying to start a new. At some points the film got very depressing and all most hard to watch.

The most problematic part of the film to me was that these people did not even try to turn their life's around. I just don't understand why they would not try to find a job, any job would have turn their life's around. I mean they live in one of the biggest cities in the world so there had to be some sort of work for them. I truly believe that if someone really wants to find a job, then they will find a job. I really believe that these homeless people could have found some sort of work if they really tried.

If I had the chance to talk to one of the people in this documentary I would speak with Tommy. I would want to speak with Tommy because he was one of the people that had lived in the tunnel the longest. And he seemed, at least to me, to be the most intelligent one living down there. I would ask him why he chose to run away from home when he was so young? Why he chose to live in the tunnel instead of some sort of homeless shelter? I would ask him was he beginning to feel comfortable living in the tunnel? I would also ask him how he felt when he heard the news that he would have to leave his home in the tunnel? And then ask him how he felt when the news came that he was going to be able to leave the tunnel and live in an apartment?

This is an image of Tommy going out of the tunnel to go and search through garbage to find recyclables such as plastic bottles and medal cans to make a little bit of money.

If you get a chance I would really recommend watching this film.

Reflection on "Dark Days"

"Dark Days" by Marc Singer is a documentary about a group of homeless people that live in a tunnel in the city of New York. It shows how these people are barely getting by living in horrible conditions. The living conditions where so bad that at one point in the movie I thought to myself this can't be real theres no way human beings can live like this, but sadly some do. I would not want my dog to have to live the life that these people were living, thats how bad the conditions were. They live in shacks made from whatever they could find metal, wood, etc. They have to go through garbage just to find food. Sadly most of the people living down in the tunnel are addicted to drugs. Drugs is probably one of the main reasons why most of the people where stuck living down there. There was this one part of the documentary where Marc was filming a guy talking about his pet cats and the guy could barely even put a sentence together. The man was obviously on drugs and it just made me feel sorry for him. I don't know why that particular part of the movie stuck out at me but it did. Toward the end of the documentary the people living in the tunnel had a chose to make, they could either leave the tunnel or be forced out by Amtrak, a train company. But, in the end everyone living in the tunnel willing left because they were able to move into apartments, which were 1000 times better that what they were previously living in, that were being paid for by the government. If I were to describe this movie to a friend I would describe it as sad and depressing. This documentary really makes you feel for the homeless. It makes you want to get up and do something to try and change how homeless people live. I never really thought about just how horrible life is for homeless people until I watched this documentary. This documentary really opened my eyes to something that I had never even thought about before.