Catfish

A lot of controversy surrounds Catfish due to a question of authenticity... the filmmakers remain adamant that the events they captured in this documentary were all true, unstaged and the result of being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time (in the sense that Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman happened to be making a documentary about photographer Nev Schulman when certain unsettling events began to unfold). However, a lot of critics and viewers have expressed doubts about whether it's a documentary or a hoax. It probably doesn't help that Nev, the central figure in Catfish, is a slightly smug member of the New York art set who comes armed with a neverending supply of shit-eating grins.

I don't know where I stand on the hoax issue, I really just can't make my mind up. I think there at least needs to be a level of collaboration between Nev and the film's other subject that isn't fully disclosed on the screen. Some aspects of the narrative don't really seem feasible otherwise. By the way, like most reviewers I have decided not to talk about Catfish's content in any specific way due to the film's reliance on the audience not knowing anything about it before seeing it. I don't want to spoil it because (hoax or no hoax) it's still an interesting examination of our changing modern world, and its status as a documentary means that the unknowing viewer (myself included) invests a heightened level of excitement in the unfolding 'story'.

If (and that's a big 'if') everything in Catfish is 'real' and unstaged then I think the filmmakers are probably guilty of something worse than hoaxing, and that's exploitation. It's hard to talk about without spoiling the film, but the use of this story and the people involved seems to go beyond a commentary on information technology to become something a little more disturbing. Joost and the Schulman brothers have essentially exploited a sad situation for their own chance at high-brow fame and success.

It's almost metatextual in the way they manipulate the audience for their own fame. The difference between Catfish as a marketable product and the story it actually shows us is that these 20-something New Yorkers clearly come from a position of privelege and opportunity - whereas the people they meet in the film are considerably less well off and aren't motivated by such luxurious ideals. I understand though that if these guys did happen to capture such an intriguing story on film as it happened then it would be incredibly hard for them to let go of it. Having said that though, the way Catfish is constructed and presented might've been handled in a less self-satisfied way, and that gormless shit-eating grin of Nev's certainly doesn't do them any favours.

DIRECTORS: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
SUBJECTS: Yaniv Schulman, Ariel Schulman, Melody C. Roscher

RELATED TEXTS:
- Other 'documentaries' about an individual's search for (or adventures in) love include the mockumentaries Paper Heart and 20 Dates.
- The unsettling tone of Catfish also reminded me of the somewhat more serious documentary Capturing the Friedmans.
- For a fictional look at the phenomenon of social networking on the internet see The Social Network.