Dark Days response

This documentary was very good. It had an edgy feel to it and brought me into a world I had no idea about. Everything the director did from shot choices, color, audio and plot were very well thought out and super effective in bringing so many emotions from the audience and making the audience think about their own lives in perspective. This documentary showed us the life of homeless people in New York, but the director chose to speak of a certain group in an old tunnel. It helped the audience build a relationship with these people by only focusing on these few people, which helps play on the people's emotions.
First thing that caught my eye was the choice to make the entire film in black and white with poor quality.When I checked the date, it was 2000 so I figured the director chose this on purpose to make it feel a bit darker and sadder of a film. It also goes with the theme of poor people, having a bad quality of video. Even if it was hard to see in the darker scenes, it turned out well.
The director also chose specific scenes throughout that were very important to his meaning. The most memorable for me was the two men digging through the garbage and finding food to eat. They were literally eating it right out of the bags. It then immediately shoots over to two rats finding food in a discarded bottle and eating it. It was showing how low their quality of life was. Another scene that was powerful was when the woman cried over her children dying, but then went straight to smoking crack a numerous amount of times. It's just powerful things to see like that.
The scene orders overall was also very well done. He made a story line out of it. It helps play on the audiences emotions to see these people go on a full journey and not just see them go through a bad time. It starts with them introduced. Then, it is no way happy, but a bit more upbeat feeling when you see how they are managing to survive, like the one man making $70 on a weekend, and when you see they can eat and have homes. While still less than our standards, they still seem proud of making it by. Then tragedy strikes them and makes it seem depressing, first with the fire, then their own personal stories of jail and their families and finally their eviction. But at the end the director brings us straight up by showing them with apartments, food and excitement for what the future holds. The director's emotional journey really makes the documentary.
A few things I have taken away from this that I will try to use will be the use of different emotions, a story line, and frequent examples, like all the people he used with all their own personal touch to the topic. This will go along with how important sound, specific scenes power, and effects like fading out and having someone talk off screen. It was a good example to learn from.