As a lifelong native of the Bronx and New York, the older you get the more you begin to hear about the city and how there is an entirely different dimension behind the neighborhoods you see on a daily basis. If you look beyond Manhattan where the landmarks have all turned in to Disney attractions, if you look past the subways that create the illusion of sanitary conditions and safety, you’ll discover within the shadows and crevices of every construct that there is a hidden society beneath your feet.
It’s a society that very few people acknowledge and even few discuss, because it’s a world most New Yorkers have rarely seen and never want to be a part of. “The Tunnel Dwellers of New York” examines the impressive resilience of the impoverished, a massive legion of homeless folks and unemployed all of whom have retreated in to the darkness of abandoned train stations and deserted train tunnels to live among their own kind and build a world none of us have ever seen. Though many have depicted these societies in stereotypical devices, director Chantal Lasbats delves in to the sub-communities within these dark caves where she explores their ability to garner electricity, their custom made beds and bed rooms, and their methods for garnering food that the normal world would deem unfit to eat.
Along the way as Lasbats chronicles the lives of the select homeless, those without a stable home or even a stable meal rise to the surface to also show audiences how they live and how they’re able to get by on the smallest resources. One man is able to stretch five dollar hand outs in to a week, another shops in the local garbage dump where supermarkets and stores dump their food, and another is an infamous gang member who retreated in to the darkness to stay away from danger. Almost like the Eloi they have become so accustomed to their way of living but are just as law abiding and docile as most apartment dwellers.
Maybe even more so. Most of the individuals interviewed are much too scared of the outside world to even emerge from the sub-world, and would rather stay hidden in the darkness than live among folks who would judge and demean them. Like everyone else, the individuals who live among the rubble and isolation of the tunnels are just human and beg for respect and understanding, even after the attacks on the World Trade Center turned them in to public enemy number one at the behest of Mayor Guliani. There are some stand out moments within the journey in to the sub-society that will linger with audiences for days.
Two homeless residents shown, are self-appointed guardians to a local nun who runs a church near their home, and are so loyal to her they drop to their knees and praise her whenever she has a chance to visit their home. And in a truly heartbreaking moment, one woman is so obsessed with her living the American dream of simply having a nice warm home, and comfortable living condition that she breaks in to tears and hysterical sobs in front of the cameras. Like us they have dreams, and fears and goals, except they’ve found a way to survive on even the most miniscule resources most of us take for granted. Director Chantal Lasbats exploration in to the world behind our world is engrossing, compelling, and absolutely gut-wrenching, seeking to merely convey to audiences that the homeless society we normally turn away from in shame and apathy have found a way to survive on their own, and in many respects have turned away from us in disgust and loathing.