Final Paper

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
The Reproduction of Hierarchy in ‘Struggle Street’
Vida Robinson
Contemporary Documentary Film
“Reality is more fabulous, more maddening, more strangely manipulative
than fiction.” – Trihn T. Mihn Ha

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
Louis Althusser, in ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ lays a
framework for understanding the reproduction of ruling ideology through the institutions
and structures in our society. In this framework, such institutions are named ‘Ideological
State Apparatuses’. Althusser’s primary contention is that the subject recognises
themselves in ideological apparatuses, and through a processes of mimesis, fulfils this
view. That is, the subject becomes what they see of themselves with the ideological
apparatuses. A key tenant of Althusser’s argument is that the subject is “always-already”
within ideology; the subject’s thoughts, aspirations and actions are governed by the
ideology they are exposed to. It is the ideological apparatuses that are key to the
reproduction of the ruling ideology, for it is within these institutions – the church, the
family, the school, the workplace etc. – that subject identifies, and eventually, ‘falls into’.
This essay will take Althusser’s framework as the basis for an examination into
how the three part Australian documentary series ‘Struggle Street’ functions as an
Ideological State Apparatus. Specifically, it will outline how ‘Struggle Street’ reproduces
the ruling ideology of capitalism and consumerism. Further, it will make the claim that
this documentary series creates two oppositional categories of subjects: those that are
taught to identify with the characters on the screen (the character-subject), and those that
are taught to identify with the narrator (the viewer-subject), as he describes this
marginalised, poverty stricken community of Mount Druitt. Through this binary process
of identification, ‘Struggle Street’ provides a chief example of the reproduction of the
ruling ideology: it separates the characters from the viewers, creating a clear ‘us’ vs.
‘them’ and as such, reproduces the hierarchical class system that is the condition of
capitalism. ‘Struggle Street’ provides a poignant insight into the maintenance of class
relations, supporting Althusser’s claim that “Ideological SAs may not only be the stake
but also the site of class struggle.”
Self-described as a “fly on the wall, observational” documentary series,
‘Struggle Street’ was produced by David Galloway as a KEO Films Australia Production.
The series was funded by the Australian government and aired on the Special
Broadcasting Service (SBS), a free-to-air channel. The series follows the lives of four
main characters, whose daily activities and problems with drug and alcohol abuse, mental
illness and poverty are summarised and recounted by the narrator. The narration is the
common and most prevalent formal technique throughout the series, placing the
documentary series in the expository mode, as well as observatory. The narrator’s tone is
quintessentially Australian: speaking in a relaxed easy, manner, the narrator relies heavily
on slang and cliques.
The first half of this essay will consider the representation of the characters in the
documentary series. Using Althusser’s framework, it will unpack the rendering of the
character presented by the series, and understand the ideological process of mimesis that
occurs for the character-subject. This rendering is constructed in part through the
narration, which gives character’s lives meaning and context - summarising, packaging
and presenting their stories as we cross between narratives. This narrative strategy
exemplifies Trinh T. Mihn-ha’s claim that, “in the desire to service the needs of the
unexpressed, there is, commonly enough, the urge to define them and their needs. More

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
often than not, for example, when filmmakers find themselves in debates in which a film
is criticised for its simplistic and reductive treatment of a subject, resulting in a
maintenance of the very status quo which it sets out to challenge.”
In ‘Struggle Street’, this didactic narrative strategy removes very thoroughly the
character’s ability to define themselves and their own stories, and rather imposes a
narrative on the characters. In light of an Althussarian framework, the character-subject is
therefore asked to identify with the narrator’s definition of the character and their needs.
That is, the oppressed subject is forced to identify with the oppressor’s depiction of them,
and accordingly, per the Althussarian framework, the character-subject will become this
version of themselves that they see in ideology. Further, the narrator reduces the different
story lines to one, similar arch in using the same, cliqued expressions describe all the
characters, which serves to remove the nuances and details of each character’s story, and
gloss over their differences. Indeed, despite the variety of ages, ethnic backgrounds and
family structures that are represented by the characters, this narration creates a singular
narrative, and a singular character, for the character-subject to identify with, narrowing
the scope of their identification.
With this in mind, it becomes important to consider more closely the specific
image of the subject that is presented, with which the character-subject is asked to
identify. The similarity of the story lines is perhaps best seen at the end of the
documentary series, where each plotline culminates in a happy ‘event’ – one character
throws a surprise party for their mother, another makes a video for their family. One of
the main characters, Peta, is organising a community Christmas fair, having invested
much of her time and effort into this event, she is “gutted” when it starts raining, and no
one can enjoy the fair. We watch the fair-goers retreat to shelter and Peta hurriedly packs
away her things. This scene is accompanied by upbeat, repetitive music, which gives a
mood of hopefulness and joviality and works parallel with a long shot of children playing

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
in the rain at the fair. The narrator claims, “you’ve got to keep moving, and never give up
on your next silver lining.” Cumulatively, this sequence forms an integral part of the
reproduction of the ruling ideology: this upbeat ending, common to each of the storylines,
instructs the oppressed to preserve through this system, no matter the hardships and
injustices encountered. As well as projecting a specific narrative onto these characters,
‘Struggle Street’ also offers a specific way of behaving in the face of adversity – a very
Australian, grit-your teeth and keep going – attitude. Importantly, this way of behaving
does not challenge the system or the ideology that produces this inequality, but rather
reinforces the class stratifications through its claim that one simply must work hard,
regardless of their suffering and with little chance of upward mobility.
This documentary series also, inevitably, plays into a larger, Australian discourse
about the indigenous populations in Australia post colonialism, through the story line of
William – an Aboriginal man “doing it tough” in Mount Druitt. As William is the only
Aboriginal person we meet in this documentary, William’s storyline, takes on an
emblematic significance: the problems of drug and alcohol abuse that are so prevalent in
Mount Druitt have much higher rates among the indigenous populations than the white
Australian populations. We are first introduced to William in the bush-land outside of
Mount Druitt, as he creates slingshots out of trees that he uses to kill animals for food.
Through the narration, we come to understand this as a ‘native’ practice; he sells these
sling-shots (illegally) in town, but lives in a makeshift tent in the bush-land, about which
the narrator pronounces, “it’s certainly humble”. His plotline mainly charts his forays into
Mount Druitt, as he attempts to “get his life back on track”.
In this story line government agencies become equated with ‘progress’ – to better
himself, Will visits a government agency to apply for a public health insurance card and
attempts to obtain proof of identification. It is these government institutions that offer
opportunity for Will to advance out of poverty. This rendering of the token aboriginal

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
man in the documentary series advances an ideology of Western progress: Will’s life in
the ‘bush’ is rendered a primitive, regressive existence whilst engagement with these
government institutions will pave the way to a better life for Will.
The final shot of Will in the documentary is a long shot of him walking away
from the camera, presumably toward his home in the bush, as the narrator laments “living
in town hasn’t worked out for Will, so he’s decided to get back to his roots.” This final
shot works in conjunction with many other long shots in the documentary, in which we
see Will walking away from the camera, in the bush. Cumulatively, these shots
powerfully serve to create a physical and metaphorical distance between the bush and

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
town: the bush becomes the site of Aboriginal practices, culture and heritage, and as
such, this aboriginality is symbolically tied to the bush. To leave the bush is to leave this
site of aboriginality; so, entering the city requires the abandonment of these practices, and
the assumption of the ‘white’ practices and use of government agencies. In the context of
a long history of white exploitation of aboriginal people, beginning with the declaration
of their land as ‘terra nullius’ (no man’s land) when settlers arrived to colonise Australia,
this series undoubtedly engages with this political landscape. The camera becomes a
colonial power in a similar sense: As such, as an ideological apparatus, this documentary
suggests that success for the Aboriginal people comes for integration with white
institutions, whilst traditional practices are situated as antithetical to progress and
success.
The treatment of the characters in ‘Struggle Street’ is reductive: the seemingly
different characters are made similar but the narrator’s analysis, which in turn presents a
singular, ridged stereotype with which the character-subject must identify. A ruling,
capitalist ideology that advances Western notions of progress and urges the subject to
remain within this system is reproduced in this apparatus through narrative strategies.
After we understand the ideological importance of this treatment for this subject, we must
examine the other half of the binary, that is, the ideological identification that occurs for
the viewer.
Just as the character-subject must identify with the narrator’s rendering of the
characters on screen, the viewer-subject is left to identify with the narrator. In examining
the viewer-subject’s mimesis, this paper argues that two simultaneous processesf guide
the viewer-subject’s identification. Firstly, a process of desensitisation of the audience to
these images of poverty, and as such a reproduction of the ideology of consumerism that
accompanies such voyeurism. Secondly, there is process of conditioning that teaches the
audience-subject that they are “first and foremost a spectator.” (T. Mihn Ha), and creates
a separation between the images on screen, and the audience-subject’s political actions.
This paper wishes to argue that these complementary processes, rather than
achieving the stated purpose of the show, that is, to remove stigma and challenge
stereotypes, creates for the audience-subject both a familiarity with these images and
through formal techniques, suggests that they are not implicated contributing to this
poverty. In this way, the audience-subject is consumed into the ideological apparatus, and
in a similar way to the character-subject, taught not to question this ideology.
The idea of desensitisation through images is explored thoroughly by Susan
Sontag, in ‘On Photography’. In her claim that, “the quality of feeling, including moral
outrage, that people can muster in response to photographs of the oppressed, the
exploited, the starving, and the massacred also depends on the degree of familiarity with
these images,” Sontag highlights what is at the crux of the viewer-subjects experience of
these images. Whilst ‘Struggle Street’ is situated within a broader media context of
images of intense poverty, within the program itself, the viewer experiences a ‘mini’
version of this desensitisation process: The viewer witnesses an exponential increase in
the intensity of the images of poverty depicted. This trajectory is best exemplified in

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
juxtaposing images from the trailer for the documentary with an image from the second
episode.
The first allusion to drug use in the series comes in the trailer, where the viewer
comes to understand that this is a major issue afflicting the community. We see a long
shot of a man walking down the street in a manner that suggests drug use, whilst the
narrator introduces Mount Druitt as a “haven for the down-trodden.” This shot is partially
obscured, and the drug use remains implied, serving to present drug abuse as remote. As
the documentary progresses, the drug use becomes a common theme, the images of drug
abuse that we are presented with become more intense and confronting. This escalation
can be seen in a close up shot of pregnant Billie, in Episode 2, in a scene in which she
uses drugs as she discusses names for her baby with her mother, who is also using drugs
in this scene. The close up of Billie as she is using is a much more confronting depiction
of drug use than we have seen previously. Coupled with this discussion, this shot exposes
the viewer to a more sinister depiction of drug abuse, appealing to their sense of outrage
with the implication of a an unborn child into this cycle of drug abuse.
This intensification within the documentary reveals a process of desensitisation;
as Sontag explains, “photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.
Unfortunately, the ante keeps getting raised – partly through the proliferation of such
images of horror.” Whilst the ante is being raised within the show, within a broader
context, Struggle Street also contributes to the “vast photographic catalogue of misery
and injustice throughout the world, [that has] given everyone a certain familiarity with
atrocity, making the horrible seem more ordinary – making it appear familiar, remote,
(“it’s only a photograph”), inevitable.” (Sontag)
This trend of desensitisation widens the scope of aesthetic consumerism,
perpetually extending the boundaries of what is available to the viewer-subject to

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Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
voyeuristically enjoy. The subject’s consumption of images must always be “renewed
with new shock,” which ultimately, “creates another habit of seeing: both intense and
cool, solicitous and detached: charmed by the insignificant detail, addicted to
incongruity.” It is this new habit of seeing that comes out of aesthetic consumerism that is
perhaps the most powerful tool of the ruling ideology. Indeed, the ideology of
consumerism that fuels our obsession with such images converts political issues into
items of aesthetic appreciation and reduces characters into objects of consumption. The
Althusserian identification that occurs for the viewer-subject within the ‘new habit of
seeing’ is one in which we identify with the consumer of these images, and thus become
this avid, insatiable consumer, serving to propel the ruling ideology of capitalism.
This desensitisation works concurrently with a process of conditioning that
separates politically the viewer-subject from the character-subject, teaching the audience
that their role is primarily as the spectator: “either one is not responsible for what one
sees… or the only way one can have some influence on things is to send in a monetary
donation.” (T. Mihn-Ha). In separating the political actions of the viewer-subject to the
images on screen, the documentary allows the viewer-subject to abdicate their
responsibility in benefiting from the hierarchal class system, and in so doing, contributing
to the poverty they see on screen. That is, they are taught that they are not complicit – and
can therefore enjoy their voyeurism guilt-free.

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
This process relies on the viewer-subject’s identification with the narrator. This
identification is cemented through aerial shots of the Mount Druitt, as the narrator
conveys the meaning of the images the viewer has seen. These aerial shots allow the
narrator to occupy an omniscient position, making “the socially orientated filmmaker the
almighty voice-giver (here, in a vocalising context that is all male), whose position of
authority in the production of meaning continues to go unchallenged, skilfully masked by
its righteous mission.” (T Mihn-Ha). In ‘Struggle Street’, the narrator acts as an allknowing
guide through what is posited as a foreign, unfamiliar landscape; as viewers, we
are given no alternative to the narrator, thus cementing the identification process between
the viewer and narrator.
In light of this, we can understand that the symbolic distance between the narrator
and the images on screen is converted into a symbolic distance between the viewer and
the characters. This is established in the opening sequence in the trailer: the narrator
begins in the heart of inner Sydney, a sequence of shots of popular tourist destinations
that are used to symbolically represent affluent Sydney. As the establishing shot, the
narrator is situated within this context; heightening the inner city audience’s connection
with him. The narrator proceeds to guide the audience to Mount Druitt: a fast-forwarded
tracking shot charts the 45km road journey to Mount Druitt. As the opening of the trailer,
this shot, (which also plays at the beginning of each episode) literally shows the distance
between the inner, ‘mainstream’ Sydney, and the outer area of Mount Druitt: the camera
physically takes the viewer on a journey, removing them from their familiar surrounds
and transporting them to this faraway land. The physical separation that is established in
this sequence deliberately creates the impression the viewer is symbolically far removed
from the problems that will be explored.

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
This idea of separation is reinforced throughout the film, through its observational
and expository modes. The main characters do not break the fourth wall: the majority of
time with the characters is spent in the observatory style, watching their interactions with
others in the scene. When characters are alone with the camera crew – moments in which
the viewer is allowed much more intimate access into the character’s thoughts, there still
remains a separation between the characters and the viewers. The characters never
address the camera directly, and their bodies are angled away from the viewer. Even in
these rare moments of intimacy, the viewer is never fully confronted by the character’s

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Contemporary Documentary Films
experiences, and rather remains an observer, watching the characters answer the
interviewer’s questions.
Perhaps the most powerful way that the show separates the political actions of the
viewer and the images on the screen is through the recurring motif of luck. Indeed, the
documentary presents the characters without context; mentions of systematised poverty,
the cycle of drug and alcohol abuse that these characters are trapped in, the post-code
discrimination that many face when searching for employment, or the cuts to
discretionary spending for social services in the area are few and far between, and when
mentioned are done so by the character’s themselves, and not the Almighty narrator.
Instead, the narration reduces these political factors to chance, with comments such as,
“With the hand life’s dealt her, Billie’s never had much of a chance…”, “when you’re
dealt a lousy hand” or “at times like these, all you can do is stay strong, and hope
tomorrow may be better.” Cumulatively, the circumstance of poverty is depicted as an
inevitable reality, one that is a matter of luck. This inevitability powerfully removes from
the viewer the idea that their political actions can impact this reality, separating their
actions from the experiences of the community.
The viewer-subject is thus taught a powerful lesson from their identification
process. They are primarily a consumer: a consumer that is encouraged to fill an everwidening
appetite with images from which they are detached, disconnected. As T Mihn-
Ha explains, their assistance can come in the form of monetary donation, but politically,
the viewer’s actions are separated from the images we see: we do not have power over
the inevitable. In terms of a ruling ideology, this viewer-subject does not challenge the
political system that creates inequality whilst being desensitised to the images of intense
poverty.
This essay has argued that the documentary series ‘Struggle Street’ creates a
binary system of categorising subjects. It exploits the identification process, primarily
through its narrative strategy, to present these two subjects as distinct, separate
categories, where the actions of one category are removed from another. Under a ruling
ideology of capitalism, both classes of subjects are taught not to challenge this system,
but rather, to preserve through it. Notions of colonialism and consumerism are advanced
to maintain this hierarchal order of the categories of subject, cumulatively reproducing
the inequality that is a condition of capitalism.

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Vida Robinson
Nicolas Pilarski
Contemporary Documentary Films
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Mihn-ha, Trihn T. "The Totalizing Quest of Meaning." Theorizing Documentary. New
York: Routledge, 1993. 90 - 106. Print.
Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2010.
Print.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Rosetta, 1973. Print.
"Struggle Street." KEO Australia. KEO Films Australia, 2014. Web. 15 June 2015.
Struggle Street. Special Broadcasting Service, David Galloway, 2015. Film.