Nightcleaners (Part 1) (1975)

UK, 1975

90 minutes, B&W, sound

Original format: 16mm film

Nightcleaners Part 1

A documentary by the Berwick Street Film Collective (Marc Karlin , Mary Kelly, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan)

Nightcleaners (Part 1) investigated the abuse of women cleaners and exposed the corruption of a burgeoning industry, while following the cleaner’s attempts to unionize. In London, a group of women had begun to leaflet cleaners who worked at night to encourage them to form a union. This labor organization became the central action of the documentary. As the film began to develop and the labor protests began to unfold, the original three filmmakers, who were all male, were joined by Mary Kelly, at the suggestion of the leafleters group (which later became known as the Cleaner’s Action Group) out of the concern for a more inclusive perspective on gender in the production of the film. Issues of representation were a central part of the filmmakers approach, but it was only much later, in the post-production, that the complex nature of the film itself began to be formed. The Berwick Street Film Collective was not a formal organization, but instead, a loose title to encompass the names of a group of filmmakers engaged in films that were overtly political.