Clean With Me (After Dark)

What lies behind the online videos in which women spend hours scrubbing floors, organizing closets and making their homes spotless? Gabrielle Stemmer dives into the peculiar world of the YouTube phenomenon “Clean With Me,” constructing her film entirely from footage found online. What initially appears to be a collection of innocent tutorials and glimpses of fulfilled domestic life gradually reveals a very different story – one of loneliness, isolation, dissatisfaction and the pressures attached to being a woman and a wife.

Using the aesthetics of the computer screen and precise, at times almost voyeuristic editing, the film looks beneath the surface of these immaculate homes. Out of a seemingly banal internet trend emerges a surprising portrait of women trying to regain a sense of control over their lives – if only through layer upon layer of foam, cleaning products and order.