Catfish – the movie

Guest post by Leslie Hartsman

There is a great movie coming to Toronto after film fest.  It has already gotten a lot of underground attention, and today we launched a FREE SCREENING contest for TORONTO residents.
 
Please see the contest

Catfish is a film that has the Internet ablaze with chatter regarding the “realness” of its storyline and outcome.  While many are discussing whether or not the film is a trumped up story of an Internet romance allegedly gone wrong, others are staying away from such discourse as it has the potential to spoil the outcome.  Regardless of one’s stance, Catfish is generating quite the buzz as bloggers, reviewers and cinemaphiles converse about the film and the potential perils of social networking.  Such is life in the Internet age, where we are rarely disconnected to the global village and always looking for new ways to interact with friends, family and foes.

The story of Catfish is not unlike other tales that have occurred and may occur to anyone who engages in any form of social networking.  What began as a harmless interaction with a distant family, turned into an unforgettable life experience for the films protagonist Nev Schulman.  Hailing from New York, 24 year-old Nev is a photographer who began receiving paintings of his work from an 8 year-old girl named Abby from Michigan.  Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Nev’s older brother) began filming their distant relationship which eventually brought Megan, Abby’s older sister, into Nev’s world.  Nev and Megan began a long distance romance that was facilitated through Facebook and quickly evolved into text messages and phone calls.  As their long distance/Internet romance began to blossom, Ariel and Henry followed Nev and filmed his interactions with Megan, culminating with the three taking a cross-country trip to visit Megan, Abby and their mother Angela.  To continue with the plot might provide spoilers however, suffice to say, Catfish is not what many believe it to be and helps paint an interesting picture regarding any form of social networking.

A feverish buzz has thus surrounded Catfish as people are anxious to discover what happens between Nev and the seemingly normal Facebook family he befriended.  Conducting a Google search for ‘Catfish movie’ will bring you to Alliance Films YouTube page where in just over a week, views of the trailer have gone from 350 to almost 9,800.  In addition, Alliance Films has seen their subscribers on YouTube almost double during this time.  Twitter and Facebook are bustling with activity about the film and movie review sites are hailing Catfish as the “can’t miss film of 2010.”  Chatter about the film has personal bloggers raving about the storyline and ending while doing just enough to provide no spoilers.  After taking Sundance by storm, Catfish has the social networking community rife with chatter about Nev, his relationship with Abby and Megan’s family and his journey to meet them face-to-face.

The movie launches on September 24th 2010 but for those who simply cannot wait for the outcome, Alliance Films is running a contest for an advance screening in Toronto on Monday September 20th.  Want tickets?  Follow these simple steps and you’ll be able to ride along with Nev, Ariel and Henry as they embark on their cross-country journey to meet the 8 year-old art prodigy Abby, her sexy older sister Megan and their mother Angela.

To be eligible for tickets to these advance screenings, all you have to do is join the Alliance Films Facebook fanpage (www.facebook.com/alliancefilmsinc) for updates.  Contest details will be provided on this page.  Good luck and remember… don’t let anyone tell you what it is!

Leslie Hartsman
President & Chief Creative Officer
Direct: 416.783.1157 x 24
leslie@hooplah.com | www.hooplah.com