Catfish is a documentary about a man called Nev and his growing relationship with a family through the medium of virtual communication using Facebook and email. It begins with Nev’s interest in the artwork and paintings of Abbey, the families’ youngest daughter and grows as we see Nev fall for the beautiful Megan, Abbeys eldest sister.
I absolutely loved this movie. As a documentary, it was shot very well, using on-the-fly handycams to get in-depth and touching conversations and moments, alongside beautiful location and high energy shots to accompany them. It built up the whole journey of the movie well as we were brought from the early conversations and details between Nev and this family, which then developed into a romantic relationship, which then again became a journey to finally meet the people he knew face to face. The twists, which developed halfway through the piece, I was blown away by, as I actually did not expect events to turn so drastically and again thought that events may turn back again soon after. Also, to finally put the faces and facts together near the end was slightly twisted again as we began to see that there was no malicious intent behind these events but again should act as a warning for how this could of worked out otherwise. Had other forces been in play, things may well of been dangerous.
In relation to culture and society in creative media, I think this documentary is a perfect piece to show how recent social technologies such as Social Networking sites, email and online-chat services can provide people from different parts of the world, with a means of instantaneous and direct communication, no matter the distance. This can lead to close bonds and blossoming relationships between individuals and groups of people where, were the technology not available, these relationships would not of been possible.
On the flip side of this piece however, we see how the convenience and acceptance of these technologies in our everyday lives, has resulted in us leading second lives online where we provide vast amounts of information on our personal lives, free for all to see. With social networking now so heavily embedded in many of our lives today, we allow our lives to be displayed online and in turn become the constant voyeurs of every little detail of others lives online also. This documentary showed perfectly how we accept so much of what is online to be correct and true, that every corner of the internet is safe, and fail to remember that there are those who would use these failings to their own advantage, preying on the open lives found online, where everyone is equal.
Official movie trailer available here:
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