Catfish (film)

Catfish
Directed by	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman
Produced by	Andrew Jarecki Marc Smerling Henry Joost Ariel Schulman
Cinematography	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman Yaniv Schulman
Edited by	Zachary Stuart-Pontier
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Relativity Media Rogue Pictures
Release dates	January 22, 2010 (2010-01-22) (Sundance) September 17, 2010 (2010-09-17) (United States)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Box office	$3,237,343

Catfish is a 2010 American documentary about a man who is filmed by his brother and friend as he builds a romantic relationship with a girl on the social networking website Facebook.

Plot

Young New York photographer Nev Schulman lives with his brother Ariel and friend Henry Joost in New York. Abby Pierce, an eight-year-old child prodigy artist in rural Michigan (Ishpeming and Gladstone), sends him a painting of one of his photographs. They become Facebook friends in a network that broadens to Abby's family, including her mother, Angela; Angela's husband; and Abby's attractive older half-sister Megan, a songwriter.

For a documentary, Ariel and Henry film Nev as he begins a long-distance relationship with Megan, conducted over the Internet and phone calls, and they discuss meeting in person. She sends him MP3s of her songs, but Nev discovers that they are all taken from performances by other people on YouTube. He later finds evidence that Megan and Abby have made other false claims.

Ariel urges his upset brother to continue the relationship for the documentary. The siblings and Henry eventually travel to Michigan to make an impromptu appearance at the Pierces' house and confront Megan. They discover that the person behind all these Facebook personae is Angela, in "reality" a housewife who cares for two disabled stepsons in addition to Abby. Although Angela's husband Vince exists, the real-life Megan has no contact with the family and was not the person talking to Nev. The trio also finds out that Abby is not a child prodigy, and she cares little for painting or drawing altogether. Angela is the artist behind the paintings. Angela also used fake photographs for herself, Vince and Megan, and her fake friends.

It is explained that Angela seems to have fabricated these fictional people on Facebook as a way to escape the regrets that came with sacrifices she had to make in order to have a family and a stable life. As the film progresses towards the end, Angela's life around the house and interactions with her family are shown.

Production

Angela used personal and family pictures that Vancouver, Washington photographer Aimee Gonzales had posted on Facebook to portray Megan and her family. Catfish's filmmakers compensated Gonzales for her involuntary appearance in the documentary, and she participated in publicity for the film. A photograph Angela described as a son, Alex, is that of rapper Joshua Paul Liimatta, also known as "The Sisu Kid".

Controversy

In an interview Ariel Schulman related that some viewers believe Catfish to be a fake documentary, a hoax: Morgan Spurlock, director/star of the documentary Super Size Me, walked up to the producers of the film during one of its initial screenings and told them "it was the best fake documentary he had ever seen". Comedian Zach Galifianakis also has stated that he does not believe the events in the film to be true.

The Schulman brothers and Joost stand behind their original statements: the film is "100% true" and it tells the story exactly how it happened. They also chalk up the perfect timing of every narrative element in the movie to just coincidence and sheer luck. Ariel Schulman has stated that

"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."

Release

The film had a limited release on September 17, 2010. The Rogue Pictures unit of Relativity Media acquired Catfish in a bidding war versus Paramount Pictures, after Brett Ratner endorsed the film. Catfish was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 4, 2011.

Reception

The film received a 82% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the site's consensus being "Catfish may tread the line between real-life drama and crass exploitation a little too unsteadily for some viewers' tastes, but its timely premise and tightly wound mystery make for a gripping documentary".

TIME Magazine did a full page article, written by Mary Pols in a September 2010 issue, saying "as you watch Catfish, squirming in anticipation of the trouble that must lie ahead―why else would this be a movie?―you're likely to think this is the real face of social networking."

At the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Alison Willmore of IFC described it as a "sad, unusual love story." John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called Catfish "jaw-dropping" and "crowd-pleasing" but said that it "will require clever marketing in order to preserve the surprises at its core." Kyle Buchanan of Movieline asked if "easily the most buzzed-about documentary" at Sundance had "a truth problem", and reported that an audience member questioned whether it was a documentary at all. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times referred to these questions as a "severe cross-examination" and stated his belief that "everyone in the film is exactly as the film portrays them."

External links

• Official website
• Catfish at AllMovie
• Catfish at Box Office Mojo
• Catfish at IMDb
• Catfish at Rotten Tomatoes
• index.php?pr=Film_Review_Catfish 'Catfish review at MEAP Careers
• 'Catfish' Creators Catch Digital Life In Action at NPR