A mother and daughter collaborate for How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps, a new film by Carolina González Valencia
“Beatriz Valencia, a domestic worker, and her daughter-filmmaker, Carolina, collaborate to create the fictional character of a writer. Together, mother and daughter capture the slippage between truth and fantasy, in a hybrid documentary that tells a story about immigration, labor, dreams and the power of fiction to spark emancipation.” – From Away Films
Carolina González Valencia, Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture, and Director of the film explains, “The film is an experiment, where we use play, fiction and improvisation to tell our stories. All of these by pushing the form where the limits that separate genres are blended, erased. Here, we take the viewer into a journey of pleasure, beauty, and closeness through a family archive, animations, re-enactments, music and dance!”
Currently, the film is in the post-production phase, where Carolina is working with an editor to finish the cut. They hope to start the last phase of post, which includes sound mastering, and color correction, at the end of the winter. Carolina and her team plan to release the film next year.
The project has been funded by LEF Foundation (awarded production and post production funds), BAVC MediaMaker fellowship, Ellis-Bullergard, and Bates Faculty Development Grant. In addition, the film is part of the 2024 Sundance Producers Lab.
Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture, Carolina González Valencia’s films lie at the intersection of personal, social, and political narratives. She weaves multiple media–animation, video, film, performance, and writing–to create films that challenge social and historical representations of migration, otherness, diaspora, and labor. She has worked on projects in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Lebanon, and the United States.
Photos courtesy of From Away Films