http://www.twothousand.com.au/issues/271/CatfishWhere:
In cinemas 26 January.
Watch the trailer:
Here
Win:
Thanks to Hopscotch we have five dbl preview passes (this weekend!) to give away! To enter, email us with the subject 'If this is your documentary, you're doing a bad job.' sydney.win@rightanglestudio.com.auPrint Email Share
Documentary film's conventions have been so seamlessly adopted by narrative cinema (from unbearable romcoms to 'found footage') that really gripping stories can seem too good to be true. And Catfish is a really gripping story.
It begins innocuously, as eight-year-old painting prodigy Abby contacts New York photographer Nev Schulman and the pair strike up a cute, art-swapping Facebook friendship. Nev's filmmaker brother Ariel and officemate Henry Joost decide to make a documentary about Abby. But Nev has also friended Abby's mum Angela, and is falling for her older sister Megan. He insists Rel and Henry join him on a road trip to meet the Michigan family in person.
Here's where I'm like, 'Oh c'mon!' It's hard to believe our social-media-savvy trio didn't anticipate - or stage outright - their story's hairpin bend into thriller territory. But what makes Catfish really provocative is that it doesn't claim digital interactions are a sad echo of 'real life'; rather, it dramatises the threshold between what's displayed and what's perceived. The structure of the film mirrors its narrative, and its audience its protagonists. So if it leaves you feeling cheated, well, now you really know how Nev felt.
