Documentary on Mumbai's conservancy worker wins Los Angeles Film Awards

Image used for representational purpose. File photo

A documentary, ‘Clean Up' highlights conservancy workers' challenging journey during the pandemic and how these frontline workers picked up the constantly rising quantities of hospital waste has recently won the Best Documentary at Los Angeles Film Awards in the United States.

The documentary features Avinash Pillai, one of the contract laborers from Worli who along with other workers in the city had seen it all during the lockdown. He was one of the first frontline workers on duty, immediately after the lockdown was announced in India.

Mumbai generated thousands of tons of Covid 19 waste from each hospital - which included large quantities of disposable curtains, bedsheets, gloves, gowns, medicines, face masks, and more, which were never seen before in the history of mankind. ‘Clean Up' follows Pillai, who picks up these waste bags every day and shows how his journey reveals a larger global problem.

"We remember many frontline workers but very few people think of the conservancy workers who also played such a crucial role during the time. They dealt with bags that were completely infected with the virus and each hospital generated over 10,000 waste bags in a day. They had to be picked up and disposed of to make space for thousands more to follow in the coming days, months, and a year. I felt it was an important story to tell," said Vaishnavi Vasudevan, director and producer of Clean Up.

The documentary was shot in Mumbai during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic's first and second wave in India in 2020 and 2021. The film was executive produced by the Board of Governors of Television Academy Award and renowned producer, Daniel H Birman.

The documentary was also selected to be released on Spectrum News1 for more than 11.5 million subscribers in Southern California. "It was selected not just for the compelling story it told about the journey of conservancy workers in Mumbai but also how disposable waste we generated across the world impacts us even today," said Birman.

‘Clean Up' also reveals the impact of the waste on those living in and around the bio-medical waste incinerator located in Deonar. It also features city environmentalist Stalin D, Mumbai's Kachra Vahtuk Shramik Sangh's Milind Ranade, Times group journalist Lata Mishra, renowned city pulmonologist Dr. Vikas Oswal and a few Deonar residents as well as activists who have been fighting for the shifting of the biomedical waste incinerator.

"It turned out to be an investigative visual piece that also explored the global impact of Covid-19 waste on our planet, with experts from around the world (mostly the US, UK, Hong Kong, and Canada) sharing their experiences about the challenges and its impact," said Vaishnavi. The award for ‘Clean Up' comes days after two documentaries from India received accolades at Oscar 2023.