Catfish

A documentary. Nev is a photographer in New York. A young girl paints one of his published photographs and sends it to him online. A correspondence starts. In time he comes to know the rest of the family. The girl's mother, her brothers, and above all her older sister; the exchange with Megan turns into a relationship. Nev's brother and his friend film the process from the start. The camera is inside daily life; phone calls, messages and the files that arrive are recorded. Then something does not hold. A song Megan sent turns out to be someone else's. From there the documentary becomes a journey. The three get into a car and drive to the address in Michigan. They arrive at night, find the house and knock. The meeting carries the whole weight of the film. The person who turns out to be behind it is not a threat; from that point the narrative stops accusing and starts listening. What it is interested in is not fraud but loneliness: why this person did it is explained at length, and the film does not judge it. The title comes from a story told in the last section, and the term later came into common use online. On release there was argument about how much of it was real; the team maintained that the documentary was not staged and the argument was never settled. Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost directed. Who it is for: anyone interested in documentaries built on the internet and in true stories. Who it is not for: anyone who wants certainty; the truth of the film is still disputed and the narrative does not question its own method.