Movie Must See: Catfish (2010)

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




Young 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 Ishpeming, Michigan, 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 veterinarian/dancer/songwriter who lives in Gladstone, Michigan.




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.





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".