In the first episode of the new documentary series Addicted Australia, we meet 41-year-old Sarah. “I don’t look like a drug addict, so I’ve been told,” she says, staring down the camera. “I don’t know what one looks like, really, because I am one. So they look like me.”
Our ideas about what addiction “looks like” is one of the attitudes that this documentary, which launches on Tuesday 10 November on SBS and SBS On Demand, sets out to challenge.
Addicted Australia is the latest in a string of engrossing documentaries to arrive in 2020, following can’t-look-away tales of polyamorous tiger breeders, competitive cheerleaders, grisly murders and million-dollar fast food scams. The quality of nonfiction stories today is so good that many have dubbed this the golden age of documentaries.
It’s been a big reputation shift for a format previously considered something you watched for education more than enjoyment. The change of face began in cinemas - think of the success of the galvanising RBG, in 2018, about late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - but in 2020, the best docos are arriving on the small screen. The rise of streaming services has allowed us to delve into bigger, deeper stories of multiple episodes, and made viewing those stories communal experiences that we share with our friends and family.
Lt. Phil Brady (2nd Battalion Marines) and Maj. Hoan - Executive Officer 4th Battalion Vietnamese Marine Corps (VNMC) KIA Binh Gia 12/31/64.
For example, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s excellent 10-part documentary series The Vietnam War, back on SBS On Demand from 1 November, unfurls the story of one of the most divisive events in American history across an epic 18 hours, from the perspective of nearly 80 witnesses. Not restricted by a 90-minute cinematic run time, we can now spend longer getting to know the stories of real people.
SBS’s groundbreaking new series Addicted Australia is about a diverse group of 10 Australians battling drug, alcohol and gambling addictions. It follows those undergoing treatment, and their families, over a six-month period as the subjects take part in a unique program at a Melbourne facility, Turning Point.
The documentary points out that one in five Australians will have a problem with alcohol, drugs or gambling at some point in their lives - and that for every person with an addiction, another seven people around them will be affected.
Intimacy is part of what makes Addicted Australia so compelling. The documentary maker, Blackfella Films, says it received “extraordinary access” to subjects and their families, and it’s striking how honest those subjects are willing to get. All of those featured in the series get painfully candid about their struggles with addiction and what led them there. Sarah, for instance, explains that after failed IVF and the breakdown of her marriage, she became deeply depressed and turned to methamphetamine.
Addicted Australia follows 10 Australians’ heartwrenching journey from despair to hope and possible recovery. Photo: SBS photographer Aaron Smith.
Many, like Lucas, who estimates he has lost “well over $300,000” of his own money due to his gambling addiction, continue to hold down full-time jobs while they wrestle with their addiction. The series is the first time some of the subjects have come forward about what they are battling.
“Essentially I’m an alcoholic and I can’t tell anyone,” says 31-year-old Heidi. “I think if I said to people that I drink in the morning and I drink at work and I drink when I get home, it wouldn’t make sense. Because it doesn’t make sense ... so I don’t say anything.”
Addicted Australia is poised to start conversations about how Australia views and treats addiction. Like many documentaries that have resonated lately, it feels real and honest at a time when the world around us grows ever more perplexing.
If there’s one thing the documentaries that have succeeded this year have in common, it’s that they feel like a reaction in some way to the current global climate. Shows like Addicted Australia give us greater empathy for those around us. Others stand back and look at the stranger-than-fiction reality we now inhabit. Fourth Estate, which is available on SBS On Demand from 1 November, follows New York Times journalists in the first year of the Trump presidency, as they work to hold accountable a president who undermines them with cries of “fake news”. Over four episodes, it illuminates the complex issues facing journalism today.
Drew Dixon and Joan Morgan in On the Record.
Others still, like On the Record, streaming now on SBS On Demand, show us a different side of stories we thought we knew: it follows sexual assault allegations at the Def Jam Recordings record label and the way the #MeToo movement failed black women in America. It’s the third film directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering about sexual assault, following The Invisible War and the Oscar-nominated The Hunting Ground.
In part, at least, the current appetite for true stories feels fuelled by our desire to better understand people, politics, history and headline-grabbing stories. In 2020, by simply switching on the TV, we can change the way we view the world around us: from the Australians struggling in the shadows to those on the highest rungs of global power.
SBS On Demand is one of Australia’s largest free streaming platforms, with more than 11,000 hours of drama, documentaries, movies, news and more.
