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Abstract
This article explores the way marginalised identities in documentary frequently rely on a discourse of pain and injury when articulating social exclusion. Yet, as theorist Wendy Brown notes, claims made by and behalf of politicised identities can lead to a form of “self-subversion.” In attempting to contest marginalisation identities can become attached to this subordination, as it exists as an increasingly defining point of identification. This article investigates Brown's notion of “wounded attachments” in regards to the efficacy of contemporary political documentary through two recent examples, Fix: The Story of an Addicted City (2002) by Canadian filmmaker Nettie Wild and Rize (2005) directed by David LaChappelle. It also extends the discussion of wounded attachments to account for the specific implications of a documentary address to the viewer that draws on an aesthetic of painful otherness.