A Little Web Will Do Ya –

June 13, 2018 – Seventeen years ago, Tess Sweet wanted to disappear. Suicidal, addicted to heroin and consumed by shame and rage following a sexual assault, she couldn’t see how she might someday help others suffering similar pain. Today, Sweet is a filmmaker living in Santa Cruz, California, using her experiences with addiction and mental illness to shift the conversation about recovery and help other addicts — by turning them into actors.

When Sweet launched her passion project, Cleaner Daze, a darkly comic web series set in a youth rehab facility, she knew she wanted to do things differently. As the show’s writer, director, editor and occasional cast member, she wasn’t interested in another glossy treatment of at-risk youth played by actors with zero connection to the subject matter. Instead, she would capture the reality of kids today growing up on drugs. To get there, and drawing on Larry Clark’s approach for his 1995 cult classic Kids, Sweet took to the streets of Santa Cruz, handing out flyers inviting young people and adults in active recovery to audition…

Full Story @ OZY.com