Catfish - The Facebook Documentary Thriller

There’s a lot of hype around at the moment surrounding new Hollywood blockbuster The Social Network and whilst it may be popular, the real Facebook film you should be looking out for is Catfish.

The film which has caused a stir at America’s Sundance Film Festival and The BFI London Film Festival this year was created by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost in 2007, when they decided to document Nev Schulman’s online experience as he gradually became friends with a family in Michigan via Facebook. Throughout the documentary it is revealed that Nev is starting to have reciprocated feelings for a member of the family, Megan; they talk on the phone, online and send each other texts, but it’s not long until strange discoveries about the family arise. What follows is a series of strange events as Nev eventually meets the family and the saying “people aren’t what they seem” springs to mind.

The three central protagonists Ariel, Henry and Nev are all very likeable, funny and soon into the film the audience begin to sympathise towards Nev and his quest for the truth. The film is enjoyable, and does well in creating suspense throughout as the viewer and filmmakers start to learn more about “the facebook family”, although the twist revelation near to the end of the film isn’t quite as shocking as the trailer makes out, but it is still is an interesting one.

Catfish is shot using a camcorder to begin with, which can be quite disorientating and distracting but towards the end of the film the quality improves. There has been much deliberation as to whether this is really a documentary as has been claimed. It could be argued it is fictional because the content could appear to be unbelievable, and also because there seems to be a large amount of brand names used in the film such as iphone, Blackberry, Google Maps, Apple Mac and Supermarche – which might suggest these companies helped fund the film.

Whether or not it really is a documentary Catfish is still highly entertaining, and teaches a good lesson to be more internet aware, and to not take people at face value.

Trailer

The film is set for release in the UK on 17th December

Catfish: Real or Fake?

Catfish - A movie about what happened in the USA in 2007 when Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost began to film Ariel's brother Nev's life.
Nev had made friends on Facebook with a girl named Megan Faccio and after much time they become very close and Nev and the two others decided to travel to Megan's home to meet her.
From watching the trailer, after the 3 people arrive at Megans house nothing more is told of the story, just quotes saying that the film will shake you for days, that it's unpredictable and that it's the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed.

View the trailer for yourself here

After causing a stir at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year there has been much debate online as to whether the film is a real documentary or not. Some claim it is and some claim it isn't but its obvious from the Official Website - Enter Nev's World, that there is a clever online marketing campaign in action.
When the Enter Nev's World link is clicked the screen transforms into that of an Apple Mac computer, it contains all the same icons, there's links to trailers and information about the film, emails from Megan can be read and there's a chat screen where you can witness what appears to be Megan and Nev typing online to each other.
This reminds me of the internet campaign that was in place before the release of The Blair Witch Project.
On April Fools Day 1999 Artisan entertainment relaunched The Blair With Project website with extra material including footage disguised as discovered film footage, police reports, information on the missing film students and a history or mythology of the Blair Witch legend.
The next day Artisan sent 2,000 Blair Witch screensavers to journalists and premiered its trailers online instead of on tv or in cinemas.
Overall Artisan spent $1.5million of their $20million budget on their internet campaign and debates as to whether the footage and evidence were real filled web message boards and online chatrooms.
From creating mass hype the film managed to take around $248million worldwide at the box office.
Many other films have used the internet as a big outlet for marketing their films such as Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings and Matrix Revolutions.
The fact that the The Blair Witch Project turned out to be a fake documentary despite all the "real evidence" on it's website makes me question as to whether all the "evidence" on the Catfish website leads to the fact that the film is also a fake documentary.
Whether it is or not, with the hype it's creating already and the relevance of the storyline to todays youth, I'm sure the film will be a big success.

Catfish is showing twice at the BFI London Film Festival
Sat 23-21.15-Vue Screen 3
Mon 25-15.30-Vue Screen 3

To book click here