“Dark Days”, a documentary by Marc Singer, explores the lives of homeless New Yorkers living in the Freedom Tunnel, a deserted train tunnel beneath the city. Singer, a British expat, was living in New York when he befriended this community and decided to make a film about their lives. The film was shot in black and white, with the tunnel’s inhabitants serving as the crew.
Singer’s documentary won three awards at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, including the Audience Award for Documentary. It also secured a distribution deal with Palm Pictures. Despite this success, Singer struggled with the ethical implications of his work, grappling with whether he had exploited the tunnel’s inhabitants for artistic and financial gain.
After “Dark Days”, Singer distanced himself from filmmaking. He spent time in Florida rescuing birds affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and now works in construction in California. A remastered version of “Dark Days” was released in 2011, but Singer has no plans to return to the film industry. He remains proud of the documentary, but contends that the real heroes are the tunnel’s inhabitants who shared their stories.
Go to source article: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/26/dark-days-marc-singer-new-york