New York City Underground
04 Jan 2011, written by Riz 0 Comments
This video is unreal. Andrew Wonder’s follows Steve Duncan through some of his most recent adventures in New York City. To start with, Wonder and Duncan take a quick jaunt down the subway line to a “secret” subway station that’s now become quite familiar to Jalopnik readers — the City Hall subway station.
Then, as if that weren’t cool enough, the pair take us into the underground Canal Street sewer in Manhattan. The sewer is New York’s first covered sewer after being roofed over in 1812 — previously, it was just an open ditch — a “canal” — and it’s what gave Canal St. its name. Its cool to see the pair interacting with the famous Mole People who live in the abandon tunnels under the city. As if seeing NYC from under the ground wasnt enough, Duncan climbs to the top of the Williamsburg bridge for some of the best views NYC has to offer. Im wondering how many hipsters are going to get drunk on PBRs and try this one out. Ill actually be on of them.
Dark Days. The Mole People
01 Feb 2010, written by Riz 1 Comments
When he relocated from London to Manhattan, Marc Singer was struck by the number of homeless people he had seen throughout the city. Singer had befriended a good number of New York’s homeless and later, after hearing of people living underground in abandoned tunnel systems, he met and became close to a group of people living in The Freedom Tunnel community stretching north from Penn Station past Harlem. After living with them for a number of months, he decided to create a documentary in order to help them financially. Singer had never been a filmmaker before, and saw the production of Dark Days as a means of gaining better accommodation for the residents of the tunnel.
The film’s crew consisted of the subjects themselves, who rigged up makeshift lighting and steadicam dollies, and learned to use a 16mm camera with black-and-white Kodak film. The post-production process took years, as financial difficulties created delays, as did Singer’s insistence of creative control to protect the tunnel residents.
During filming, Amtrak announced they would be forcibly evicting the homeless living in the tunnels. This announcement, plus the police presence backing the decision, prompted Singer and photographer Margaret Morton to go to the Coalition for the Homeless for help. Eventually, Singer and Morton managed to secure housing vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the film’s subjects, which enabled them to move out of the tunnels and into their own apartments.
The film features music by DJ Shadow, including excerpts from Endtroducing… as well as his album with U.N.K.L.E. Melissa Neidich was the editor of the film. Cinevision, a New York City camera shop, supplied Singer with cameras for the two-and-a-half years of filming. When Singer ran out of money for film, Kodak supplied free damaged film for the project.
