Arch. Myriam B. Mahiques Curriculum Vitae

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Dark Days, an urban-social documentary


Some months ago I´ve read The Manhattan Hunt Club (2001), a novel by American writer John Saul. The plot is really entertaining but most of all, I liked his description of the homeless living in the subterranean trains tunnels of New York.
Yesterday, I´ve watched Dark Days (2000), a documentary directed by Marc Singer, that shows the lives of those who dwell in an abandoned New York city railroad tunnel, and it seems to me that John Saul has been highly inspired by this film. Even, the great words that I supposed belonged to him ¨a houseless is not a homeless,¨  or similar, were stated by one of the dwellers, at the beginning.
There is also a woman, crying for her lost child, the cooking, the drugs, comradery, fights and explanations of ways of earning some money.
The film, that has won many festival awards, is sometimes criticized because of the blurry images and the sound, but after all it is a great testimony of the habitat and lives of underground inhabitants who feel they do have a home, a subject that is also present in Saul´s novel. 
Today, I´m sharing some screen shots I´ve taken from my computer. My recommended for architects and sociologists.








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