Production crews will struggle to film a controversial documentary in Sunshine if a newly formed action group has anything to do with it.
Furious residents vowed to interrupt any attempts to film the second season of the SBS series Struggle Street in their neighbourhood after unconfirmed reports of a crew filming people in a queue outside the Salvation Army Social Housing and Support Network.
While SBS denied filming outside the Harvester Road homelessness service last week, it did not respond to Star Weekly’s inquiry about filming elsewhere in the suburb.
Sunshine resident Nicola McKay called a community meeting at Derrimut Hotel last Friday at which a Sunshine Against Struggle Street group was formed.
“I can’t sit back and watch our community be attacked for the sake of ratings,” she said. “There’s lots of misinformation about this doco being good for us. Let’s make it hard for SBS to build the story that Sunshine is nothing but disadvantage and poverty. Let’s have a say on the narrative about our home.”
The first Struggle Street series, filmed at Mount Druitt in Sydney’s west, was dogged by controversy and charges that the broadcaster was creating “poverty porn”.
Plans including a social media campaign using #Sunshineandproud, a mail-drop of information and a short film promoting a positive image of Sunshine were discussed at the Derrimut Hotel meeting.
Brimbank council has refused a permit for Struggle Street to be filmed in the area.
Read more at: smh.com.au
