Director Lachlan Mcleod follows Australian Sandra Pankhurst and her team of ‘trauma cleaners’: those who scrub crime scenes, suicide sites and clear out hoarders’ homes
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“People meet me and they go, you’re real! They can’t believe it,” says Sandra Pankhurst, the subject of Lachlan Mcleod’s second documentary, Clean.
Pankhurst is a person who has led many lives within a life: adopted as a child, then severely abused by her adoptive parents; emerging from a failed marriage and coming out as a transgender woman in the 1980s; working as a drag queen and sex worker; and eventually starting her own cleaning business in the 1990s. Late in her life (she died in 2021), Pankhurst became a public figure after the publication of Sarah Krasnostein’s expansive, heartfelt and award-winning book about her life and line of work, The Trauma Cleaner, in...
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“People meet me and they go, you’re real! They can’t believe it,” says Sandra Pankhurst, the subject of Lachlan Mcleod’s second documentary, Clean.
Pankhurst is a person who has led many lives within a life: adopted as a child, then severely abused by her adoptive parents; emerging from a failed marriage and coming out as a transgender woman in the 1980s; working as a drag queen and sex worker; and eventually starting her own cleaning business in the 1990s. Late in her life (she died in 2021), Pankhurst became a public figure after the publication of Sarah Krasnostein’s expansive, heartfelt and award-winning book about her life and line of work, The Trauma Cleaner, in...
- 8/20/2022
- by Cher Tan
- The Guardian - Film News
The complete programme has been announced for the 75th Edinburgh Film Festival consisting of 87 new features, 12 short film programmes, and two large-scale retrospectives that celebrate the 2022 Theme of the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s Film Festival in new Creative Director Kristy Matheson’s inaugural edition.
Critically acclaimed gibberish comedy ‘Nude Tuesday’ has been announced as Central Gala to complement the previously announced Opening and Closing Galas of ‘Aftersun’ and ‘After Yang’.
10 international feature films with over 50 female Directors or Co-Directors for the brand-new competitive section for ‘The Powell and Pressburger Award for Best Feature Film’.
The entirely in-person 75th Anniversary edition this year will include a dynamic programme of cinema screenings, live performances and industry dialogues in Edinburgh in the heart of the August festival season welcoming attending UK & international filmmakers to present their work.
Also in news – Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Luke Evans join animated Netflix film ‘Scrooge:...
Critically acclaimed gibberish comedy ‘Nude Tuesday’ has been announced as Central Gala to complement the previously announced Opening and Closing Galas of ‘Aftersun’ and ‘After Yang’.
10 international feature films with over 50 female Directors or Co-Directors for the brand-new competitive section for ‘The Powell and Pressburger Award for Best Feature Film’.
The entirely in-person 75th Anniversary edition this year will include a dynamic programme of cinema screenings, live performances and industry dialogues in Edinburgh in the heart of the August festival season welcoming attending UK & international filmmakers to present their work.
Also in news – Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Luke Evans join animated Netflix film ‘Scrooge:...
- 7/25/2022
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In-person Screenings
The Melbourne Film Festival will return to cinemas after two turbulent years caused by Covid-related disruptions – the city endured one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns – and will run Aug 4-21, 2022. It will open with powerful Australian-u.K.-Serbian-made first film “Of An Age,” by renown shorts director Goran Stolevski. Festival organizers pitch it as “a heart-meltingly tender, quintessentially Melbourne queer coming-of-age tale that will make you swoon from beginning to end.” The Mff is scheduled to close with another Aussie title, documentary “Clean.” Directed by Lachlan McLeod, it examines how so-called trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst responded to an unseen world with radical kindness. The festival has also teased some of the titles that it will program between the gala bookend events. They include: Kamila Andini’s “Yuni”; Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank”; John Hughes and Tom Zubrycki’s “Senses of Cinema”; Ulrich Seidl’s...
The Melbourne Film Festival will return to cinemas after two turbulent years caused by Covid-related disruptions – the city endured one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns – and will run Aug 4-21, 2022. It will open with powerful Australian-u.K.-Serbian-made first film “Of An Age,” by renown shorts director Goran Stolevski. Festival organizers pitch it as “a heart-meltingly tender, quintessentially Melbourne queer coming-of-age tale that will make you swoon from beginning to end.” The Mff is scheduled to close with another Aussie title, documentary “Clean.” Directed by Lachlan McLeod, it examines how so-called trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst responded to an unseen world with radical kindness. The festival has also teased some of the titles that it will program between the gala bookend events. They include: Kamila Andini’s “Yuni”; Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank”; John Hughes and Tom Zubrycki’s “Senses of Cinema”; Ulrich Seidl’s...
- 6/9/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
There is a certain satisfaction in learning the stories of people who, through luck, circumstance or sheer grit, have ended up in precisely the right job. Australian director Lachlan McLeod’s “Clean” turns out to be just such a story, but here the job is trauma cleaning — that is, swabbing down crime scenes and suicide sites, clearing out inherited or repossessed houses, assisting the mentally and physically disabled with home maintenance and tackling the grimly fascinating phenomenon that is hoarding. Initially it’s unfathomable that anyone’s life experience could make them ideally suited to this extraordinary, specialist profession — much less to develop an entire philosophy around it. But that’s before we get to know Sandra Pankhurst, the founder of Melbourne-based trauma cleaning company Stc.
McLeod’s approach is at first a little coy, implying the film will be less about any one person than about the necessary but often harrowing services Stc provides.
McLeod’s approach is at first a little coy, implying the film will be less about any one person than about the necessary but often harrowing services Stc provides.
- 3/21/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: UK sales firm Rocket Science has boarded world sales on Clean, the fly on the wall documentary from Lachlan McLeod (Big In Japan) which premieres in the Documentary Competition section at SXSW.
The movie is a close-up insight into the world of ‘trauma cleaning’ through the journey of larger-than-life business owner Sandra Pankhurst and the workers at Melbourne’s Specialized Trauma Cleaning Services. Below is a first clip.
Trauma cleaners’ clean spaces that no one else will touch – hoarder sites, meth-labs, murder scenes, deaths and suicides. They clean the homes of some of society’s most vulnerable people – the neglected, the lonely, the addicted, and the mentally unwell. When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra Pankhurst faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother. Meanwhile, her workers approach this difficult work with camaraderie and humor, bringing hope to...
The movie is a close-up insight into the world of ‘trauma cleaning’ through the journey of larger-than-life business owner Sandra Pankhurst and the workers at Melbourne’s Specialized Trauma Cleaning Services. Below is a first clip.
Trauma cleaners’ clean spaces that no one else will touch – hoarder sites, meth-labs, murder scenes, deaths and suicides. They clean the homes of some of society’s most vulnerable people – the neglected, the lonely, the addicted, and the mentally unwell. When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra Pankhurst faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother. Meanwhile, her workers approach this difficult work with camaraderie and humor, bringing hope to...
- 3/7/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
In-person festival to run in Austin, Texas, from March 11-20.
A starry SXSW 2022 film line-up announced on Wednesday (2) includes world premieres of new work from Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Richard Linklater and Nicolas Cage, among many others.
The Austin, Texas, festival ran online editions over the past two years and is planned to take place from March 11-20 as an in-person event against a backdrop of declining Omicron infection levels across the United States.
The roster includes Irish filmmaker and actor Campbell-Hughes’s It Is In Us All (pictured) in Narrative Feature Competition starring Cosmo Jarvis, Claes Bang and Campbell-Hughes about a...
A starry SXSW 2022 film line-up announced on Wednesday (2) includes world premieres of new work from Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Richard Linklater and Nicolas Cage, among many others.
The Austin, Texas, festival ran online editions over the past two years and is planned to take place from March 11-20 as an in-person event against a backdrop of declining Omicron infection levels across the United States.
The roster includes Irish filmmaker and actor Campbell-Hughes’s It Is In Us All (pictured) in Narrative Feature Competition starring Cosmo Jarvis, Claes Bang and Campbell-Hughes about a...
- 2/2/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The shortlisted teams for the Australian International Documentary Conference’s (Aidc) three key pitching programs have been revealed ahead of the online event later this month.
State of Play, Australia Uncovered, and Reel Smart Academic Roundtables will give participants the opportunity to pitch their projects to decision-makers at the four-day conference, with a view to securing funding or production partnerships.
Alice Burgin, Aidc CEO and conference director, said the annual event’s many pitching opportunities are part of what makes the annual event so important.
“We are so grateful for the continued support of Film Victoria, and our partnerships with Sbs and La Trobe University, as they help us realise these important opportunities,” she said.
“We’re extremely grateful that these organisations share our vision for an Australian nonfiction sector that is relevant, curiously imaginative and perpetually excited by what the future has to offer.”
State Of Play
Developed in partnership with Film Victoria,...
State of Play, Australia Uncovered, and Reel Smart Academic Roundtables will give participants the opportunity to pitch their projects to decision-makers at the four-day conference, with a view to securing funding or production partnerships.
Alice Burgin, Aidc CEO and conference director, said the annual event’s many pitching opportunities are part of what makes the annual event so important.
“We are so grateful for the continued support of Film Victoria, and our partnerships with Sbs and La Trobe University, as they help us realise these important opportunities,” she said.
“We’re extremely grateful that these organisations share our vision for an Australian nonfiction sector that is relevant, curiously imaginative and perpetually excited by what the future has to offer.”
State Of Play
Developed in partnership with Film Victoria,...
- 2/17/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
The Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc) has revealed the 15 teams that will take part in its international pitching showcase, The FACTory.
Now in its sixth year, the annual event for new documentary and factual projects will be held online, giving selected participants the opportunity to present their work in front of the largest contingent of international decision-makers to participate in Aidc, including funders, buyers, broadcasters, sales agents, and distributors.
Shortlisted teams for The FACTory will pitch across three strands: Central Showcase, New Talent Showcase and Rough Cut Showcase.
Alice Burgin, Aidc CEO and conference director, said the 15 projects selected for 2021 were “exceptionally strong and exciting”.
“Our aim is to help these teams make valuable connections with our international decision-makers and take the first or second step towards making these ambitious factual productions,” she said.
All projects in The FACTory 2021 will be eligible to win pitch prizes, including the Finch Prize,...
Now in its sixth year, the annual event for new documentary and factual projects will be held online, giving selected participants the opportunity to present their work in front of the largest contingent of international decision-makers to participate in Aidc, including funders, buyers, broadcasters, sales agents, and distributors.
Shortlisted teams for The FACTory will pitch across three strands: Central Showcase, New Talent Showcase and Rough Cut Showcase.
Alice Burgin, Aidc CEO and conference director, said the 15 projects selected for 2021 were “exceptionally strong and exciting”.
“Our aim is to help these teams make valuable connections with our international decision-makers and take the first or second step towards making these ambitious factual productions,” she said.
All projects in The FACTory 2021 will be eligible to win pitch prizes, including the Finch Prize,...
- 1/20/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
‘Cleaning Trauma’.
Four filmmaking teams will square off for the chance for $50,000 in funding and their documentary to be released through Vice at this year’s Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc).
This is the second year that Vice, Screen Australia and Aidc have run the documentary funding initiative, known as Pitch Australiana. It aims to provide provides early career Australian filmmakers an opportunity to collaborate with Vice in telling a story that speaks to communities, individuals, perspectives and subcultures that are overlooked or ignored in mainstream media.
This public pitching session will take place in front a panel that includes representatives from Vice, Screen Australia and the wider documentary community.
Last year’s winner was director Inday Ford and producer Dylan Blowan’s Shooting Cats: Australia’s War on Feral Cats, an ob doc that explores the catastrophic impact feral cats have on Australian wildlife and the complexities environmentalists face...
Four filmmaking teams will square off for the chance for $50,000 in funding and their documentary to be released through Vice at this year’s Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc).
This is the second year that Vice, Screen Australia and Aidc have run the documentary funding initiative, known as Pitch Australiana. It aims to provide provides early career Australian filmmakers an opportunity to collaborate with Vice in telling a story that speaks to communities, individuals, perspectives and subcultures that are overlooked or ignored in mainstream media.
This public pitching session will take place in front a panel that includes representatives from Vice, Screen Australia and the wider documentary community.
Last year’s winner was director Inday Ford and producer Dylan Blowan’s Shooting Cats: Australia’s War on Feral Cats, an ob doc that explores the catastrophic impact feral cats have on Australian wildlife and the complexities environmentalists face...
- 1/21/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
In the era of reality television and social media, it seems easier than ever before for everyone and anyone to have 15 minutes of fame.
It was a curiosity about this idea of accessible celebrity that inspired three Melbourne-based filmmakers — David Elliot-Jones, Lachlan Mcleod and Louis Dai — to head to Japan, where foreigners often score stardom.
Now in post, the trio's documentary Big In Japan explores what fame is like for an ordinary person, and the motivations behind those who want to become famous.
The three co-directors, who operate under the umbrella Walking Fish Productions, made their first film back in 2012: an interactive doco for Sbs, Convenient Education..Armed with enough money for new equipment, they then moved to Japan for two years to begin their next project..
The idea behind Big in Japan was a .fame experiment. with a simple goal: to try to make Elliot-Jones famous.
Elliot-Jones told...
It was a curiosity about this idea of accessible celebrity that inspired three Melbourne-based filmmakers — David Elliot-Jones, Lachlan Mcleod and Louis Dai — to head to Japan, where foreigners often score stardom.
Now in post, the trio's documentary Big In Japan explores what fame is like for an ordinary person, and the motivations behind those who want to become famous.
The three co-directors, who operate under the umbrella Walking Fish Productions, made their first film back in 2012: an interactive doco for Sbs, Convenient Education..Armed with enough money for new equipment, they then moved to Japan for two years to begin their next project..
The idea behind Big in Japan was a .fame experiment. with a simple goal: to try to make Elliot-Jones famous.
Elliot-Jones told...
- 5/3/2017
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
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