Catfish. Catfish is one of those films that, when watching it, you wonder why it’s been made. It’s a documentary, which on the face of it tells nothing more than the story of an aspiring photographer Nev as he makes a professional relationship of sorts with a young 8-year-old girl, Abby. Nev, who in 2008 had a picture published in The New York Sun, received a package from a young girl in Michigan, which to his surprise contained a remarkable painting of his photograph. Nev then proceeded to make contact with Abby via e-mail, becoming pen pals of sorts. They shared e-mails for a couple of months, talking and becoming friends. Her mum Angela lead the correspondance, also talking to Nev about Abby and her work. Nev took more photographs for Abby to paint, and she obliged, sending them to him regularly. He then met her 19-year-old sister Megan, whom he quickly built up a relationship with through the medium of Facebook and texting. They talked for endless hours, sharing their deepest secrets, and forming a sort of long distance relationship. With talk of meeting up never coming to fruition as they lived at opposite ends of the country, Nev was never to suspect anything, until he found out Megan’s deepest and darkest secret of all. It’s when you finish watching the film that you truly understand the purpose of Catfish. It’s a story of friendship, love, hope, betrayal, deception, loneliness, belonging, manipulation and mystery. It shows the length that some people will go to find someone they can share their problems with, someone they connect with. It shows how difficult life can be, and how decisions made many years ago can affect your life today. And shows how easily, with the technology we have nowadays, we can be drawn into a trap and misled. It’s an odd film, no denying that. And as I’ve said, I don’t think you can fully appreciate it until the end credits roll, however I think it’s worth a watch. The simple fact that it is real life means that you can connect with the characters, and I think it’s a real eye opener to some of the types of people that live in our world today, and just how lonely and desperate they can become. It makes riveting viewing, and at the end builds up quite a lot of emotion as you finally see the reason behind the film. It is certainly an intriguing and thought provoking documentary of modern communication and shows the power, and dangers of social networking. If you like thought provoking drama, or you really want to see what social networking can do I thoroughly recommend. 7/10