In her creative documentary, “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara”, Erin Lee Carr depicts a rather remarkable event in the life of the Canadian indie band, Tegan and Sara, where numerous fake profiles were used to impersonate the twin sister, Tegan Quin, in order to lure their fans. Moreover, the film uses this narrative as a starting point in addressing how within a span of a few decades, social media has changed from being a space where fans could interact in most cases safely, especially for queer individuals, into parasocial fandoms, portraying extremely negative sentiments. It also serves as a time capsule for the millennials who grew up in this period, who also had websites like Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, MySpace, Tumblr, and even Last.FM as an integral part of the scam. Sadly, the way the film handles true crime only alienates us from the real suffering of people that this story revolves around.
Even though the movie’s title includes both Tegan and Sara, its primary emphasis is on Tegan as one of the impersonators began posting non-PG content in her name as early as 2008. Fans however were not so lucky as many other shady characters pretended to be the respective musicians.
When the doc starts, Tegan responds to their concerns of bringing everything back and how it could be potentially confusing to them as well as their fans. Toward the end of the film, when the bravado seems to reach its apex, we see, in part, what this reservation was about and the wound that exists.
The inquiry into this infamous hacking began as a complaint lodged by twins Tegan and Sara, in 2011 with their management two years after the twins had gone on global tours. They turned out to be informed by their management that their Russians have been compromised shows Tegan and Sara Brothers as one of their Failed Foreign Actors (FFA). Tegan, aka “Fegan” in this document, has been issuing fabricated appearances and sending fake letters about her identity over the Internet claiming that she is Tegan. The imposter took personal liberties and abused a few of Tegan’s fans and even an acquaintance when she was a newcomer in Vancouver.
The movie proceeds to fill the gaps around this part by showing scenes from Tegan and Sara’s first collab album and switching between timelines where Tegan and Sara’s most devoted fans fantasised about meeting Fegan, management discussing how to deal with fan impersonators, and a social psychologist providing insights into catfishing. These stories, told by fans, particularly allow you to understand and appreciate how important these fan sites were in the early 2000s for so many people, especially the young and queer. While I’m not a huge fan of Tegan and Sara, the feelings of many young people in the early days of the internet which have been expressed by the band, can be connected to the memories of growing up with the Internet.
Fans who have resided on the Internet since Tegan and Sara’s cometo theme have even got introduced to Sadie Williams whose first job was to answer fans personally. “When I visited her for the first time, I saw all the emails and flag sites of fan fanatics.”
Tegan discovered her fandom in a different light when she became bigger in the band by meeting them in line before shows, signing merchandise after different gigs, and even working at the autograph booth for numbers of fans and for many artists. The band’s confessional style lyrics also helped in creating a sense of being which in essence, helped them bear the brunt of all sorts of fakes.
It’s very much in this vein that John Travolta’s portrayal of Turk on Pulp Fiction was one of the first instances when admiration turned into obsession. First, one of the film’s refrains, it concentrates on how love leads the idol to dollar bills and admiration turned into possession. Thanks to spice daddies, we’ll know a shock don’t need explanation regard how one language ‘stan’ beside someone the world does not need in decay meet any need soft for the old Philips Giant Clinic since talked ‘stan’ even 3 bills, which is coming out twenty-five years next year, is a good twinkle to get something when-early ‘That was mean-festering roots?’
Two distancings in the film’s interval towards the final come off poorly. A certain acquaintance, introducing himself as JT relates how the events connected with the intention to disclose this information, and Tegan’s chilly attitude led them to a state of ‘safety’ within the queer community for a long period. “Vancouver is a pretty small town. So is music,” JT states. Not even later for a moment, lying on the table still traumatized the how meeting like White Devorah for the first time in years was later squeezed JHalentorm.
Tegan accepts that there is pain there; however, she shifts most of the blame to the wrath of “Fegan,” rather than what she did to JT. This kind of discomfort is typical of Tegan’s trauma, but the way the movie appears to employ JT feels more like placing a piece on the chessboard in order to impose structure to the film than the two people truly making amends.
The other sequence is about a very obsessed fan who calls herself “Tara,” who had a blog where she used to write, Quincestp fanfics (dear readers, I apologize if this is the first time you are hearing about twincest fanfiction and googling it would perhaps not make you any better). While filming the document, ‘Tara’ who turned out to be the most invested in the investigation had the most instances where she interacted with the other fans affiliated with ‘Fegan’, the Sarries’ management, even one of Tegan’s former spouses. For instance, Tegan and director Erin Lee Carr are seen calling ‘Tara’ and the way they address her, tells the story well, their voices were modified, and they point ‘Tara’ and others seeking apologies for their horrible behavior insinuating that ‘Tara’ is equal to ‘Fegan’. That obviously doesn’t end well.
That scene, of course, is hard to sit through all right… But not, I think, for the reasons the filmmakers want you to be uncomfortable for. Of course, boundaries have been crossed by ‘Tara’ somewhere.
This point that it cannot be the case that what happened to Tegan should affect the singer because she is a celebrity is a clear example of how some fans disregard the fact that celebrities also have emotions. More disturbing is the fact that it also is portrayed in such a provocative manner with no acknowledgment by both Tegan and the filmmakers of the kind of leverage they hold in this situation The most intriguing aspect of it all is that the entire film is based on the premise of catfishing as a tool for being in control over someone else. Tegan and Carr nevertheless concur that probably ‘Tara’ is not ‘Fegan’ but that’s the only epiphany they can derive from the meeting.
It is added that ‘Fegan’ is said to have exchanged more than 2000 messages with the victims over a period of 16 years and the case as to who committed the offences remains pending. There is no end to it. As the closing credits flashed across the screen, I was left with the question as to whether Tegan later regretted participating in this project and whether the victim fans in turn managed to feel that it was appropriate to talk about their experiences once again.
As this film is directed in the relentless way that Carr directs it, there’s no place for understanding what it means for the fans to revisit all these intense feelings. Those emotions seem to be off the table because they do not serve as evidence in the investigation.
Even when arguing that celebrities are complex human beings, this documentary misses a human perspective.
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