Reel This

Dark Days is Marc Singer's highly acclaimed 2000 documentary (and only one to date) following several homeless individuals who lived in the shantytowns of New York City's Freedom Tunnel in the mid-'90s. Singer gives the subjects black-and-white Kodak film to capture each other conversing and living in the shantytowns that they have scavenged the streets to build, and how they sustain living and survival in a city that can really beat you down. You don't normally come across any source of media that gives a portrayal of the homeless as humanizing and as heartfelt as this: bad decisions and dark, tragic turns in life that lead them to a life of fighting to see another day. This was recently added to Oscilloscope Laboratories impressive film roster, as the film distributor re-released the documentary for its 10th anniversary in 2011.

Currently streaming on MUBI. Since they have a 30-day limit host for each film featured on the site, I suggest not sleeping on this.