IMDb RATING
7.7/10
7.2K
YOUR RATING
A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
- Director
- Star
- Awards
- 7 wins & 6 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe soundtrack for the film was provided by DJ Shadow (aka Josh Davis), who is a critically-acclaimed producer and DJ. He is notorious, however, for being very protective of licensing his music for other venues or projects, having declined many other scoring offers in the past. When a friend of Singer's saw the footage assembled to a rough cut, he suggested Shadow for the soundtrack. Singer got hold of a couple of Shadow's albums, and loved the music so much, he began to cut the music into his film without any contact with the DJ. When fellow producer Ben Freedman told him he would need the rights to the music, the duo concocted a scheme whereby they would write a note to him and give it to an attractive female friend who would go backstage after a show and personally hand-deliver it. It worked. Weeks later, the two scheduled a flight to LA to coincide with a last-minute meeting with Shadow and his agent. According to Shadow, he was prepared to turn down the men's offer to use his music. But when they showed him a rough edit of the film with his music that Singer had already cut-in, Shadow was taken aback and completely impressed. He not only let them use existing titles, but even remixed some older tracks intercut with new audio samples recorded by Singer in the tunnels as a special score done for the film.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: The Beach/Snow Day/Holy Smoke (2000)
- SoundtracksBuilding Steam With A Grain Of Sand
Performed by DJ Shadow
Featured review
Beautiful Story of Determination, Self-Exhile, Self-Forgiveness and Encouragement
To actually get the full effect of the documentary, one must watch the special features on the DVD. From there one will learn that the crew for the movie was composed of the same homeless people who were the subject of the film. These folks knew nothing of film-making, but with the encouragement of one, yes ONE, person, they became a team and had a purpose and something to look forward to.
The point of their teamwork wasn't to gain a home via the welfare system. Their point was to make a film and use any profits toward getting their own home. They knew day in and day out that everything they had worked on up to that point could be useless if the money ran out, but they did it anyway. They went through everything we throw away and made something of it and themselves. Never once did any of the people who were homeless show self-pity. Some even explained how they got where they were and why they stayed there. Watching their story puts a human face and the people we don't even recognize as human when we see them on the street. It is a beautiful story of self-exhile, self-determination and giving back.
If you are bitter, jaded, depressed or full of self-pity, then run to the video store to get this movie. Then be thankful you have a warm dry place to live, money to rent movies and a TV and DVD player.
The point of their teamwork wasn't to gain a home via the welfare system. Their point was to make a film and use any profits toward getting their own home. They knew day in and day out that everything they had worked on up to that point could be useless if the money ran out, but they did it anyway. They went through everything we throw away and made something of it and themselves. Never once did any of the people who were homeless show self-pity. Some even explained how they got where they were and why they stayed there. Watching their story puts a human face and the people we don't even recognize as human when we see them on the street. It is a beautiful story of self-exhile, self-determination and giving back.
If you are bitter, jaded, depressed or full of self-pity, then run to the video store to get this movie. Then be thankful you have a warm dry place to live, money to rent movies and a TV and DVD player.
helpful•132
- sorianophoto
- Feb 13, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Тёмные дни
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $309,648
- Gross worldwide
- $333,843
- Runtime1 hour 22 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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