Starring: Sandra Pankhurst
Distributor: Madman Films
Runtime: 95 mins. Reviewed in Sep 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A striking documentary about Sandra Pankhurst, founder of Melbourne’s Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.
Background information for Clean indicated that this was to be the story of Sandra Pankhurst and her cleaning company, Trauma Cleaning Services, which works in the most difficult of circumstances – death scenes, crime scenes, people who have hoarded stuff for years.
And this story is definitely at the core of the film. However, by the end of Clean, we might feel we have seen several films in one. And all the more interesting and challenging for that.
We are introduced to Sandra Pankhurst, in her early 70s, a vigorous and forthright personality, but suffering from lung infections which prevents her from doing her work. She founded the company in 1991, from home, then building up a team and having substantial headquarters in Frankston, Melbourne. In some ways another film within the film is the introduction to members of the staff, who are interesting and articulate personalities, enlightening us about the work itself, techniques, and the physical, biological and infection difficulties of going to such sites. With a number of sequences illustrating their work in all its challenge, we feel we know a lot of what cleaning trauma sites entails.
While we have been given some of Sandra Pankhurst’s background, it is only a third of the way through the film when this biography becomes something else. For those not in the know, it is quite a surprise when we hear the word ‘transgender’. This means an elaboration of Sandra’s early life – born Peter, marrying, fathering two sons, something not quite right, divorce, gender realignment processes and then plunging into a world of Drag Queens, prostitution, and then the personality and conscience crisis when Sandra is raped.
Almost a film in itself, irrespective of the cleaning company. At the end, because Sandra never knew her parents, an adoption agency tracks down her birth mother with the possibility of them meeting each other.
Pankhurst became a significant figure in Melbourne and beyond, with sequences of her speaking at meetings and battling on despite increasing illness. Sandra Pankhurst died in July 2021.
A thought came while watching the end of the film: what would Jesus think about Sandra Pankhurst? Jesus would have found this film interesting. After all, he did not live long after those meals where he dined with prostitutes and tax collectors so did not know how they turned out. He did have high hopes for them. He would have been impressed by the lows and highs of Sandra Pankhurst’s life.
[Ed note: There is an informative Wikipedia entry on Sandra Pankhurst, background, Catholic connections, the downs and lows, her achievements.]
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