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THE UNDERGROUND HOMELESS COMMUNITIES


ETHREADZNY

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NOT TRYING TO EXPLOIT OR GLORIFY THE LIFE OF THESE PEOPLE> I EVEN THINK THERE MIGHT OF BEEN PREVIOUS THREADS ON THE TOPIC, BUT AFTER WATCHING DARK DAYS, READING MOLE PEOPLE AND THE TUNNEL, I AM AMAZED BY THE COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE BEEN BUILT UNDERGROUND. THIS THREAD IS FOR THE PICTURES OF THESE COMMUNITIES>

AND ALSO TO DISCUSS STORIES ABOUT THE UNDERGROUND HOMELESS IN YOUR COMMUNITY...

 

ALL PICTURES FROM ROSYLN SHARP 1953 IN KINGS CROSS, Sydney,

 

 

 

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an22665376-t'>

 

 

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an22665174-t'>

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an22665152-t'>

 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an22665074-t'>

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Originally posted by Weapon X

hey, ethreadz, you looking for that affordable bachelor pad you've been dreaming of moving into? Or you just wanna make some new friends who won't judge you in the same light as the "normies"? :D

 

Thw twisted thing is I have been fascinated with the mole people for a good 7 yrs now, I actually think it had something to do with my ex-girl breaking it off with me. Yeah, at one point I contemplated how life would be with them. But then I realized I could never feel like they do. However the price is right, free, and the sewer rats would never talk behind my back.

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It would be interesting to see the lifestyle that these

people must have. I saw a doc on PBS ages ago and

they interviewed a few of the people in the Tunnel.

Some were almost normal despite not seing much sun,

but then others were crazy even by homeless standards.

 

I'd personally go live in a big tree in the park.

You could bring a girl back to your tree but

probably not back to your cave (unless you club her first)

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good oppritunity to ask a question ive wanted to for a long time, on the subject.

 

i saw this avade-guarde film once called "le aisle de flure(the aisle of flowers, if you dont speak french or are extremly slow)". i waws wondering if anyone else has seen it and knows who its by?its an incredible film, about 5 mins long. it starts out in a normal household and moves along to where the trash generated by people ends up. yes, you guessed it, the trash is taken to the ailse de flurs. the fucked up thing is that there are these shacks built out of trash and entire familys living in them, as trash pickers.

 

i dont know, it was a pretty deep film.

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^^ Haha, no doubt.

 

Does anyone recall the issue of National Geographic a few years back about the underground of New York? It had a lot to do with structures and tracks and what not, but they did have a bit on some guy who lived by some Amtrack tracks, and there was a nice picture or two accompanying the writing.

 

If my scanner worked, I’d try and dig it up. Maybe another time.

 

http://www.donfoley.com/portart/ugny.jpg

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Originally posted by Weapon X

^^ Haha, no doubt.

 

Does anyone recall the issue of National Geographic a few years back about the underground of New York? It had a lot to do with structures and tracks and what not, but they did have a bit on some guy who lived by some Amtrack tracks, and there was a nice picture or two accompanying the writing.

 

If my scanner worked, I’d try and dig it up. Maybe another time.

 

http://www.donfoley.com/portart/ugny.jpg

 

what year is it from ?

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for those who havent seen it...

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/16/184716.jpg'>

 

 

Dark Days is an underground film, though not in the way you might expect. Yes, Marc Singer’s film has a slightly subversive feel to it, as he champions the cause of people who most of us would otherwise ignore. But it is in the habitat of his subjects that this documentary takes us quite literally into the underground.

 

Dark Days explores the world of the NYC moles who have been for decades inhabiting the tunnels next to the Amtrak tracks by Penn Station. A dozen or so of the subterranean-dwelling men and women are the subject of Singer’s millenium-ending study of urban decay story that Martin Scorcese would approve of. This is a terribly dismal place we visit, and the people who live among the piles of refuse are of course viewed by society as being in many ways human refuse themselves. These folks have been discarded by society, their family and/or their employers. Some are victims of abuse, but most are victims of the addictions to which they have become slaves.

 

Six years in the making, Singer’s film has the sort of below street level griminess and grit that perfectly mirrors the subject matter. While hindered by terrible shooting conditions, and despite being a novice with a camera, Singer manages to craft some breathtaking shots, perhaps because he shot with film stock rather than the much more fiscally responsible but artistically compromising video. And most impressive of all, Singer pulls off a stunt that falls somewhere between the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and Strasberg-style method acting, he actually spent two years in the urban caverns inhabited by his subjects, even using them as crew at times (they toted and set up equipment and found power sources). As a result, the line between storyteller and story is understandably blurred, and Singer’s documentary is infused with a deep sense of concern for the people he captures on film.

 

The film’s focus is upon the ability of the human spirit to survive in even the most dispiriting of conditions. Despite his closeness to the subject matter, Singer manages to avoid the sort of mawkishness that could have submarined his effort. Some stories are particularly affecting, like the crack cocaine-addicted Dee, whose two sons’ accidental burnings she wrenchingly describes, yet somehow this remarkably even-tempered film generally avoids the pitfalls of the more Dickensian melodrama that often afflict socially-conscious documentaries.

 

Singer’s recurrent use of images of rats scavenging among the mountains of trash that surround the people’s dwellings is interestingly ambiguous: Is the implicit parallel between the rats and the people meant to creep you out or affirm the resourcefulness of the humans and critters with whom they share the space? The people whose lives we share for 88 minutes carve an existence in this cavernous environment by building (and furnishing) shelters, tapping into power sources to provide light, heat and television (!), and spend much of their free time scrounging and dumpster diving in order to make use of the things that privileged people no longer deem useful. The film’s implicit attack on our society’s wastefulness in these scenes is no less effective despite the understatement.

 

It is only in its final stages that Dark Days loses focus. At the two-thirds mark, Singer announces that Amtrak has given the inhabitants thirty days to tear down their dwellings and leave their homes, hypocritically citing their concern for the inhabitants well-being (many of whom have lived there for several years—why now the sudden concern?). Amtrak then has their best laid plans laid to waste by the Coalition for the Homeless, whose lawsuit allows the squatters to take up new above-ground digs. Our final glimpses of the film’s subjects stand out, but for the wrong reason. Their Hallmark-fuzziness runs counter to all that we have seen before. Throughout Dark Days Singer champions the fighting spirit of its protagonists, so it is understandable (if artistically ill-advised) that he would want to leave us with a sense of triumph at film’s end.

 

Winner of audience award, cinematography and freedom of expression award at Sundance in 2000, Dark Days is a promising first-time effort for Singer. The film is a sordid boon, to borrow from Wordsworth, a touching story about a dismal situation, which is minimally marred by a happy ending that may cause some in the audience to gloss over the causes of much of the misery that precedes it.

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