How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps
ABOUT
Beatriz made the heartbreaking decision to migrate from Colombia to the U.S. as a domestic worker in order to provide for her family, leaving her two children behind. Her daughter, Carolina, eventually moved to the U.S. and became a filmmaker. 25 years after they first separated, Carolina invites her mother to tell their story in film, only to be met with evasive, fictionalized, or fantastical stories. Realizing that confronting the realities of the past brings them both deep pain, Carolina decides to go along with her mother’s outrageous answers. Together, they dive into a fantasy, where a fictional character of a bestselling writer becomes the bridge where fiction is the space for mutual liberation and healing.
Fantasy and truth are interwoven as daughter and mother create a space to play and explore both their shared and individual experiences with immigration, labor, family, and womanhood. The film leads up to the present day, when reality takes over their liberatory fantasy as they both have to confront a new, upending separation. An aging Beatriz, unable to work anymore and with no social benefits to support her retirement, prepares to return to Colombia, while Carolina must remain in the U.S.
Beatriz and Carolina reclaim another chance to rewrite their stories, sharing space with different versions of themselves. From bodies that fade into mansions, to women dancing in sequins, the film explores political, cultural, and personal themes around labor, migration, and family.
Carolina’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 across Latin America, Lebanon, and the United States. Carolina’s work has been shown internationally at venues such as GAZE in San Francisco; Jakarta International short films showcase; Full Frame; Contra el Silencio Todas Las Voces CDMX; Bogota’s Cinemateca Distrital; and theGene Siskel Film Center. Her films have been screened on Can TV (Chicago) and Videonautas (Colombia). She is the recipient of a Kindling Fund (Space Gallery), Ellis Beauregard Project grant, BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship, LEF Foundation Production/Post Grant, the Lyn Blumenthal Scholarship (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), the Gelman Travel Fellowship (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), and the Programa Nacional de Estímulos (Colombian Ministry of Culture). She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation). Carolina is a professor in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Brenda is a filmmaker and educator from Mexico City. Her films focus on transnational stories, spaces, and identities. She is a recent Sundance Producers Lab Fellow with the film "How to Clean a House in Ten Easy Steps." Brenda has been a fellow for BAVC’s National MediaMaker and the National Minority Consortia Lab through LPB, NALIP, and DocsMX. Brenda was in the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders” and was a 2021 Rockwood/JustFilms Fellow. Brenda received an M.A. in Social Documentation from UCSC, where she is currently a Lecturer. She is a Board Member of the Watsonville Film Festival. Brenda was recently a producer of the feature documentary "Emergent City" (Dir. Kelly Anderson/Jay Sterrenberg), which premiered at Tribeca ‘24 and aired on POV/PBS.
CREDITS
Olga Segura