Catfish

For Nev Schulman, one of the creators of the documentary Catfish, the whole experience began innocently enough. he had been contacted by an 8-year old girl named Abby via the Internet, requesting permission to paint one of his photographs she had seen in a newspaper. This is where Nev and Abby's relationship began. He continued to send photographs for her to paint. 


Nev then began to form relationships with Abby's family, becoming Facebook friends with Abby's mother Angela, and Abby's sister, Megan. This is where the real drama started.


Nev and Megan's affair started over the Internet, eventually graduating to text messaging and phone calls. It seemed normal enough to Nev. Megan, a musician, would send her covers of songs to Nev so he could listen to them. But, when Nev was able to find the same songs on YouTube, he realized they were clearly not sung by Megan. Something was clearly wrong. 


To make a long story short, Nev was deceived by Angela, Abby's mother. Abby was just a normal 8-year old girl, with basic artistic abilities. The whole family had not seen Megan in many years, as she did not keep in contact anymore. Angela herself was the artist, and was also the one pretending to be Megan, therefore having an odd love affair with Nev. She had created Megan's Facebook page as well as all of the friends "Megan" had on Facebook. She went to extreme odds just so Nev would believe her. 


Stated in a review of Catfish, It's when the boys get to Michigan that the movie goes from being a clumsily constructed video diary to a fascinating exploration of the deceptions—of self and others—made possible by the Internet.


The whole documentary shows how truly anonymous the Internet can be. Fake accounts can be created by anybody at anytime, unknowingly to other people. It just shows how careful we have to be with who we talk to, and who can view our information. 


I found Catfish very interesting though. At first, I thought it would just be about the relationship between a photographer from New York and an 8-year old painter from Michigan. But, as the documentary unraveled, lots of twists emerged. Nev and his friends trip to Michigan is what really made the documentary. 


I'm sure there are a number of people who have experiences like this. Maybe not as extreme, but it could happen to anyone. 


Here's the movie trailer.