Catfish

Last weekend I watched 'Catfish', a documentary which touches issues of identity, fiction, reality and modern technology. It is not the film you expect it to be from the trailer, instead it captivates, questions, and on more than one occasion made me feel physically uncomfortable, just through the issues it dealt with. It is one of the best films I have seen in a long time, purely for the effect it had, and the debate stirred immediately after watching it. Whether this is a "real" documentary or a false one remains vague and undefined. While the film-makers claim it is 100% real, many have questioned its veracity, and I can see why. To me however, the question of whether it is "real" or not only adds to the effect of the film as a whole, and gels well with the issues it raises in itself. Can we believe something or somebody to be 'real' just because they say they are? This is film about fiction and reality, and at the end of the screening we are too forced to question some of the very same issues; whether this is intended or not, it is certainly thought-provoking and contextually relevant.