Color It Clean (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #348 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]

This film, made by the University of Illinois at Urbana, is a tribute to the janitors who clean up the bathrooms every evening. The film shows one janitor carefully and meticulously cleaning every surface of the men’s room he’s assigned to, while several janitors speak on the soundtrack about the challenges of the job and how they try to do the best job they can. This is done so sincerely and realistically that only the most callous among us could find anything funny about it. Hey, it’s not a job I’d care to do, so my respect for janitors has gone up several notches, meaning this film is quite successful in its purpose. This is a quite unusual film that gives you a real sense of what a particular job in a particular place and time was like, giving it a great deal of historical value as well.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.