Catfish

"It felt [too perfect] to us also, as we were making it. We're very lucky. We look back at our experience and everything leads to [the moment we discovered things were not what they seemed]. As filmmakers we were ready; we felt like we spent our lives preparing to be ready, and it just happened to be me who shares the office with my brother and my producing partner."
-Ariel Schulman.


This film left me with some doubts about it's authenticity. Although it is claimed by the makers to be 100% real, the timing and sheer coincindences seem to be too vast. But as it is clear from the quote above that even those invovled at the time felt that it was "too perfect" ,then just maybe it really was a mix of good timing and luck. Either way it is a very intriguing piece of film making and demonstrates the power the internet gives us to "be" whoever or whatever we wish to be.

This power allows us to do and say things without the same risks or consequences that we would otherwise experience in real life. We can mould our identities to fit that of any gender,age or creed as seen in Catfish. We can use these identities to manipulate peoples opinions,feelings and relationships if we so wish. It is astonishing to realise that this level of reality distortion can be achieved with a few simple clicks of the mouse and some time spent creating a fake profile.

In the context of this film you feel sorry for the character Angela who has fabricated all these identities. Her motives appear to be driven by the desperate need for escapism from her own tough reality as opposed to a desire to manipulate and decieve others for the mere sake of it.

Overall I greatly enjoyed watching this documentary, be it real or fabricated. Maybe it is a good thing that we question it... After all wasn't its theme to highlight the need to question everything and to not blindly believe that what we are simply told; especially in these times when technologies supported by the internet can clearly serve as such a powerful mask for us to mould and then hide behind.


Yaniv Schulman: [First lines] If this is your documentary, you're doing a bad job.
Ariel Schulman: Why?
Yaniv Schulman: Because you're catching me when I don't want to talk about things.
Ariel Schulman: How should we do it?
Yaniv Schulman: Set it up, organise a time with me, put together some materials, emails, we'll get the Facebook conversations printed out and we'll really talk about it.