The best documentaries offer insight into a part of the world that we might never experience ourselves otherwise – and this one certainly fits the bill by exploring the trauma cleaning industry through the journey of business owner Sandra Pankhurst and her team at Melbourne’s Specialised Trauma Cleaning Services.

Sandra, a quick-witted woman in her early 70s, has spent the last 30 years building one of Australia’s most successful trauma cleaning businesses. The work is complex and messy, ranging from crime scene clean-up to hoarding and squalor sites, and cleaning the homes of society’s most vulnerable people. But as we soon discover, the people doing the cleaning – including Sandra – have often had their lives shaped by adversity too.

Packed with twists and turns, Clean is equally a celebration of remarkable people and an exploration of the nature of trauma. Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2022 AACTA Awards.

In the late 1990s, before the era of smartphones and social media, young teenager Rockit (surfer-turned-actor Ramsus King) embarks on a magical holiday along the Australian coast with his father, Bosch (Luke Hemsworth). It’s not long, however, before the boy eventually catches on that they’re actually on the run from the law as a result of his father’s drug dealing. Coming to terms with the hand he has been dealt – which includes not being to attend school or see his mother – Rockit turns to surfing and the ocean as a means of escape.

As told through the eyes of young Rockit as he journeys from boyhood to manhood, this is a raw, powerful exploration of love, forgiveness and family. It also doesn’t hurt that it was filmed in Byron Bay, against the canvas of some of the most stunning surf beaches in the world.