Catfish fishing It’s perhaps the only place where the work of Tegan & Sara and Erin Lee Carr collide. After all, the former is a Canadian indie-pop duo, the latter a true-crime documentarian. While the titular twin singer-songwriters deliver beautiful, achingly catchy tunes about breakups and same-sex longing, the latter’s filmmaker is a The shocking truth behind the incident For example, the Bling Ring theft, the hated “cannibal cop” and the infamous Dee Dee Blanchard murder.
in Passionate: Tegan and Sarah CatfishingIn “The Band,” the musician and filmmaker team up to investigate a less violent, but still haunting case that reveals how the highs and lows of internet fandom collide with the sensitive underbelly of celebrity as they attempt to catch a hacker/catfish who’s been playing with the minds of the band’s fans for 16 years.
Passionate: Tegan and Sarah Catfishing I can get a little closer
This fascinating documentary will Back to the late 2000sAs Tegan and Sarah Quinn emerged as artists, and social media took off, the band members, especially the now-defunct Tegan, would show up at merch stands or stand in line to sign autographs and take selfies with fans waiting to get into venues; now they could be found on message boards, Tumblr, LastFM, or Facebook. But 16 years later, many fans have realized that the Tegan they thought they were talking to was an imposter, masquerading as a pop star for her own reasons.
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Here, Lee steps out from behind the camera to engage on screen with Tegan (and to a lesser extent Sarah) and the other victims who have come forward to share their stories. What these women have in common is a remarkable emotional intelligence that allows them to reveal their own hurt while understanding the painful experiences of others. Just as Lee has done with the tabloids’ favorite killers and victims, she shows deep empathy for the victims, providing a supportive platform for those who confess to having been scammed. Some thought they had made a cool new friend – who turned out to be a pop star! Others believed they were in a secret relationship. All were duped by the fake Tegan, or “Fegan” as the documentary calls them, and the investigation team is tasked with tracking them down.
For the first time, Tegan herself speaks out about catfishing and how it affected her personally, and this is the film’s most powerful revelation.
in Enthusiastic, Tegan Quinn discusses the pain of toxic fandom
Tegan is quick to point out that many of her fans are amazing people, supportive of her music and of each other, but she also reveals that there’s a scary, dark side to celebrity, especially if you’re gay: Fans can become possessive towards celebrities, which can lead to them being critical or even fearful.
For Tegan, the Catfish news was a bitter betrayal that left her questioning her friends and herself: the Catfish had access to private photos, unreleased demo tracks, and even personal information about her family, and she began to worry that loved ones had turned their backs on her, or that she had betrayed their trust by focusing too much on her fans.
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Fans can feel possessive towards celebrities, which can lead to them being critical or even fearful.
The most shocking moment Enthusiastic A tense phone conversation between Tegan, Lee and a possible victim or suspect. The suspect denies that their erratic online behavior towards the artist was harmful. “You’re not being affected by anything,” they angrily declare to Tegan, a comment that feels like it reflects a common assumption about celebrity and what one must sacrifice for fame. Recently, queer pop princess Chapel Lone Go to social media To Tells fans to give her space and Exclude her family from trying to contact herSome have suggested that she “agreed” to this invasion of privacy by becoming famous, as if she had gained fame by making some vague pact with the devil.
Being famous doesn’t mean you can’t confide in anyone, as Tegan demonstrates by her hesitation in speaking out about her experiences, and even in the documentary, for fear of only making things worse. Though she remains calm throughout most of the interview, there’s no denying that she’s carrying an emotional burden with no end in sight. Throughout this time, Tegan has continued to work on not only her music, but also her memoir with her sister and its follow-up. The TV version high school IIt’s a testament to the duo’s resilience: They refuse to let these transgressions define them or stifle their creativity.
Enthusiastic Standing up to stan culture
To put the catfish in context, Lee outlines: Fan Culture Evolving over the past 130 years, this arc begins with a backlash from fans of Sherlock Holmes (not the 2010s John Locke craze, but the original Arthur Conan Doyle version), and from there experts try to contextualize how the hyper-spread of fandom has grown from 1893, to Eminem’s signature song “Stan,” about a fanatic who resorted to violence, to the current rise of Sherlock Holmes fandom. Recontextualizing the term It basically means “super fan.”
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Enthusiastic This change in “Stan” is say They’ll do anything for their idols, and fans will actually expose so-called “haters” and stalk the objects of their obsession. In its haste to connect the dots, the documentary loses the nuance of online conversations, Parasocial Relationships“And the love of hyperbole is gone. A series of reconstructed tweets (with blank avatars and no timestamps) are presented as the dangerous avenue by which online threats of violence can lead to dangerous real-life responses. Here, Lee switches to clips of pop stars being grabbed onstage and having objects hurled at them by crowds, then to footage of the trials of people convicted of stalking.
Perhaps this section is meant as an opportunity for all fans to reflect on how toxic they are in general, but it can get tiring to confuse threats of violence and identity theft with tweets like, “We support Lana Del Rey in our house. Anyone who disagrees can be strangled.” Such benign tweets feel out of place among the detailed attacks against Tegan and Sara, which include threatening to denounce Tegan and Sara as “horrible people,” sharing their personal documents with others, and writing nasty, sexually explicit fan fiction.
Passionate: Tegan and Sarah Catfishing Must see
Perhaps Lee is trying too hard to fit what happened to Tegan and Sara into the fan conversation (it’s easy to imagine the film as a limited series, given the enormity of its subject matter). Passionate: Tegan and Sarah Catfishing The film is so fascinating because of the balance of empathy between star and fan: When fandom goes sour, both sides of that equation suffer, and Lee shows that through thoughtful interviews and interactions with the real victims of Tegan and Fegan, who have come together to pick up the pieces of this strange betrayal of trust.
Fandom should be a place of community, not infighting or catfishing.
These meetings range from soothing to tense. Lee expertly exposes the “unnatural” setting of these interactions by including camera equipment and reflectors in the frame, not to expose the awkwardness of the interview, but to highlight why this particular subject, Fegan, feels anxious in this moment. There is a literal spotlight on them, and they feel it. But from this uncomfortable place comes solace, as hard truths and hurt feelings are finally revealed.
Fandom should be a place for community, not for infighting and catfishing. EnthusiasticTegan and Sara are trying to bring joy back to their community by sharing and shaking off the embarrassment of the whole situation, not only warning their fans about this strange hacker, but encouraging viewers to consider how shady online behavior can impact them in the real world – even for celebrities.
Passionate: Tegan and Sarah Catfishing The film was scheduled to have its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, but was pulled after review. The documentary is expected to premiere on Hulu at a later date.
