Worth: $17.00
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Cast:
Sandra Pankhurst
Intro:
… an understated documentary about an extraordinary person.
To say Sandra Pankhurst has lived a remarkable life feels likes an understatement. At STC, the cleaning company she founded, she is a compassionate boss who instils a similar virtue into her team, who regularly clean up after hoarders, suicides, and murders. Outside of that, she is woman who has lived a dozen lifetimes.
Director Lachlan Mcleod follows Sandra over three years of her life, including the 2021 lockdowns, as she runs her business and opens up about her past. Clean shares a frankness of tone seen in Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess’ documentary, Morgana. Like the subject of their film, Susan does not buff the edges of her life story to make it digestible for the audience.
Abused by her adoptive parents, Sandra went on to have a failed marriage, took on a new life as a drag queen then sex worker before transitioning. Even her business has left an indelible mark on her life. In her rookie days as a cleaner, working from her van, Sandra’s incorrect use of PPE has led to a terminal lung injury.
That’s enough trauma for anyone, but Sandra is philosophical about herself and the people she meets. “It’s not your demographic that decides whether you’re gonna have a trauma in your life,” she muses early on the film. “It’s just circumstance.”
Having been advised by her doctors that she can no longer attend cleans, Mcleod also follows the large team of people who work for Sandra in Frankston. Ensuring that all of them are well trained is not the company’s only priority. Sandra clearly cares for their mental health, encouraging them to understand their own strengths to help them compartmentalize the things that they see.
When Mcleod lets slip a particularly bloody detail about a clean that one worker is going to attend, there’s a brief flash of acknowledgment before they smile and respond that that’s the kind of information that they’re not made aware of. It could be considered conjecture, but it suggests that Sandra does her best to cushion the blow for those under her care.
Dovetailing with the business side of things is Sandra’s search for her birth mother. Having spent so long not searching for her, with her ill health, she feels it’s the time to reach out.
Mcleod doesn’t over-sensationalise these personal moments, allowing his subject to tell her story and share her fears. Reaching out to a parent you’ve never really met is one thing but add to that Sandra’s transition and her concerns are for her mother’s wellbeing.
Aside from a few histrionic recreations, Clean is an understated documentary about an extraordinary person. It never revels in the misfortunes of the people who pass by the screen or become overzealous in its depictions of their homelives. Like Sandrea herself, the film knows these are real people and not just filler for some reality TV show. They deserve dignity and it’s comforting to know there are people like Sandra out there who are willing to give it out in spades.
