Marc Singer Talks 'Dark Days' and Sleeping Rough in New York

Our friends at Grolsch Film Works have a website where you can find out what they’ve been up to and read/watch interesting stuff about films. Every week we'll be plucking the highlights. This is that.

MARC SINGER TALKS 'DARK DAYS' AND SLEEPING ROUGH IN NEW YORK

At 20 years old, knowing nothing about how a film camera works, Marc Singer ventured into the dark netherworld of New York’s homeless community to shoot his grainy black-and-white masterpiece, Dark Days. There, in a tunnel with virtually no light, Marc captured the remarkable spirit of his friends and their day-to-day experiences living rough, hidden beneath one of the richest cities in the world.

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FASHION IN FILM: DUNGAREES

A beloved staple of hillbillies, 90s grungers and art students, the dungaree has had a long and stylistically troubled history in film. Blue jeans, as a practical garment made for manual labourers, became as iconic a symbol of the American dream as you can get. The dungaree has a humbler history: from approximately the end of the 18th century, when they started being used as protective work gear for farmers, slaves and manual labourers, dungarees were later adopted by women for factory work during the First World War. In early film, the worker’s uniform of slovenly dungarees was epitomised by Charlie Chaplin’s iconic Little Tramp character as the factory worker in Modern Times (1936) and Laurel and Hardy as the hapless slapstick gods of the piano removal world. Throughout the 80s, they seemed to became the uniform of all-American high school dorks and “lady art students”. But it was the grungy 90s where the dungaree came into its own, something which is perhaps best personified by Winona Ryder’s topless dungareed cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

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THE HARSHEST MOVIE INSULTS

Let's start this off with a challenge. I want you to hit me square in the eyes with the best insult you've ever dished out. And I'm talking in public, by the way; not three days later, whispered into your pillow as you cry yourself to sleep. Sure, there's a chance you actually are Frank Sinatra-incarnate and you've got about 15 impressive anecdotes stored up your sleeve precisely for this moment, but if you're anything like me all those stories pan out a lot more like that scene in Disney's Enchanted where the best Amy Adams can come up with is, "You..you…are not a very nice old man!". Which is about as much of a burn as a french kiss from a snowman. Well, get your notebooks out, guys and gals, because you might want to write a couple of these down. Just in case your neighbour continues to insist on playing his didgeridoo at 3am.

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Keep your peepers peeled for more Grolsch Film Works updates next week. Go to grolschfilmworks.com to see what’s happening right now.