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A TRUE YORKERS JULY 4TH WORTH DOING

Canal Street Fireworks 1991 photo by SUEKWON Instagram here

Fireworks class of 1991-92 where Joooeeeyy was no friend of ours and the hustle of fake bags and bootleg kicks on Canal street was substituted with festival balls, mortars, M80’s, Pineapples and for our corner 1/2 sticks of homemade dynamite. Like Summer school come June there were hundreds of kids working for dozens of men.  These made men made millions while we made thousands from June till July 3rd and a 1/2.  Us locals stuck around mostly to blow up things on Canal but also for some last minute mats or belt sales or maybe some of the industrial size sparklers? Quite the smoky scene in Soho where the Dominicans & Italians of Mott st. competed with the chinese on the South side of Canal, the Vietnamese on the North side of Canal, the West siders on the rail and us Vandals on Broadway. Our corner was different, we did it for the kicks…. literally! the legendary Broadway Sneakers was on Howard and that’s how this

TrueYorker

crew stayed fly. Too many stories of hot sticky Summers in the City, like when the Squeegee kids in Hawaiian suits would make more in change per hour than us.


– Mike Saes 2022

*scan of the original firework menu (1986)

Too Much Bang For The Buck (2021)

running time 21 minutes.

Downtown, New York City, 4th of July, 1994 — a sneak peek into the hustle of illegal firework street sales. A cat and mouse chase between dealers, clients and the police, as seen through the eyes of a young Parisian and her video camera. A pre-internet, historical document shot in 1994, produced in 2000, and finally released for July 4th 2021.

 

Directed by Ema @emadallas
Starring: @senzart, Angel, Louis, Sean…

Produced by Ema for FreeMilk / Ninety Nine
Production Assistants: @juliencahn, Audrey Bitbol
Logo by @blqckpicqsso_project
Flame by Philippe Szabo, Katya
Edited by Olivier Gajan, Fourdinoy
Post Production by @anne.lecerf, @christopher.thiery, @watchoutagency
Online editing by Nicolas Bacou
Edit Box by P’Tilo
Sound mix Germain Boulay
Music by Aro, Busk, Cool, Zdar (RIP)