Tension Between Artist and Audience

For my next paper, I'm examining the 2010 Sundance hit Catfish.  In the documentary category at Sundance, the film chronicles a young man falling in love with an online friend.  Filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost follow Nev Schulman as he travels to meet his love in person only to find the young woman does not exist and is the fabrication of a schizophrenic woman.  The film's authenticity was questioned from its first Sundance screening however the filmmakers still maintain the film is 100% authentic.  The film's producers chalk the skepticism up to the fact that the events of the film are so extraordinary that it's hard to believe.  The media attention given to the controversy surrounding the film's authenticity grew to an immense size, even garnering it a 2020 Special you can see here (there are short commercials breaking the video up about every ten minutes).


In my paper, I intend to explore the controversy surrounding the film, investigating the filmmakers' responses to the accusations about its authenticity and the audience's skepticism of and response to the film.  The tension between artists and audience in this situation works on several levels including the way in which the film came to be marketed and the message of the film - that we can never really know if what we see mediated through technology is the truth.