SQUEEGEE

SQUEEGEE follows a group of young people struggling to overcome poverty and the ingenuity they bring to making a living on the streets of Baltimore.

It is an unflinching portrait of the harsh realities of growing up in Baltimore, as seen through the eyes of four young people fighting for their futures as they squeegee to make a living in a city that sees them as disposable.

  • Clarke Lyons
    Director
  • Gabe Dinsmoor
    Director
  • Clarke Lyons
    Producer
  • Gabe Dinsmoor
    Producer
  • Jesse Goldstein
    Producer
  • Jesse Goldstein
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 26 minutes 47 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    35mm, Digital, DCI 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.90∶1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Clarke Lyons, Gabe Dinsmoor

Clarke Lyons is a Baltimore-based writer, producer, and director, whose recent projects include Ballet After Dark, Arrabbers, and SAGE. Her work emphasizes the value of diverse perspectives and explores how human nature deals with trauma. Her films have screened in film festivals around the U.S. and been the recipient of multiple grants. Currently, she is a MediaMaker fellow with the Bay Area Video Coalition.

Gabe Dinsmoor’s work focuses on social justice, grassroots movements, and the beauty and resilience of his hometown of Baltimore. He shot HBO’s Baltimore Rising, a feature documentary that follows community leaders, police officers, and gang affiliates who struggle to hold Baltimore together in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death. In 2015, Dinsmoor co-directed and shot Pyne Poynt, a feature documentary about a little league team in Camden, NJ, coached by the formerly incarcerated. In 2019, Pyne Poynt had a national broadcast on the PBS series America Reframed. Dinsmoor’s work has been published by Netflix, A&E, The New York Times, The Guardian, PBS, and Entertainment Weekly, among other outlets.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Year-round, young people in Baltimore “squeegee” to make ends meet, washing car windows on street corners and highway medians in exchange for tips. In Baltimore, squeegeeing is a way of life for kids struggling to survive in a city riddled with redlining, poverty, gun violence, segregation, school-to-prison pipeline, and police brutality. Yet, despite the odds stacked against them, these young people refuse to be beaten down by the system. Instead, they use their wits and street smarts to carve out a niche in the city's informal economy.

SQUEEGEE follows four young people and the worlds they inhabit. Leroy Brown, Ericka Sparks, Desmond Rogers, and “Peanut” Davis take us on an emotional journey as they transition to adulthood.

The film documents the daily experiences of our characters and the ingenuity they bring to making a living while exploring how challenging circumstances shape their future. For black youth, hustling is so often criminalized or viewed as a nuisance, yet their work in the city’s informal economy represents perseverance. These are the young adults who slip through the cracks and go unseen, but have found a lifeline through the hustle of washing car windows. Working collaboratively with our characters, the film interweaves verité footage shot by our team, along with lyrical, diaristic footage shot by our characters, giving us unparalleled, unfiltered access into their lives.

We intend for this material to give the film a multi-layered approach, in which the kids are always the driving force behind telling their own stories. Their life off the block comes alive through their self-captured footage, providing context for how the world views them without our presence as filmmakers. Intentionally breaking the fourth wall and the changing cameraperson, as well as cinematic editing techniques, allows us to obtain what we believe is a more accurate depiction of our characters’ truth.