Dark Days: A Stunningly Gritty Insight into Homelessness

Being a fan of film I'm very interested in the use of film - through colour, tones, mies-en-scene and editing - to convey a feeling and evoke that same feeling within people. I believe that a good film is one that creates a mood that can be felt across the room like a change in energy. A good film arouses feelings within people that they were not anticipating. I came across Dark Days a while ago and it immediately stuck with me...Considering the aim of our project is to change perspectives and evoke not a sympathy but compassion, I feel like Dark Days is a really good example of how we can use film as an art form to convey our message.
Dark Days is a documentary film released in 2000 by British director Marc Singer, which explores the lives of a group of "homeless" people who have created homes in disused underground tunnels in Manhattan. Through watching the narrated version (by Singer) - which is linked below - I was provided with a very useful and inspiring insight into production of the film which he says they "winged it". Despite the notable success of the film - 4 nominations and 3 wins at the Sundance festival (2000) including one for cinematography - Singer and his small crew of 2 did not set out to create a work of art per se, rather he approached a subject matter in a very minimalistic way which then exposed the raw and captivating reality of it, unfiltered by unnecessary content and commentary. He intended to portray the lives of these people in black and white, which I think made the impact of his footage much stronger because it was an undiluted portrayal of the reality of these men's lives.
He explored the relationships that had formed between these neighbours and how they went about their lives. What I found most interesting is that the men living there lived seemingly "normal" lives, the only exception being that their environment is no typical so to speak. He explored the impact drug addiction had had on a proportion of these men's lives, and how they dealt with it and their attempts to overcome it.
I really think we should use this as inspiration for our film because I personally found it really effective, I hope you guys like it.
Hanin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GePTt0t7e6o (With narration)