Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara premiered at TIFF this year and will soon be available on streaming…
For many years, Canadian musical sensations and identical twins Tegan and Sara have expressed their individual personalities through indie pop-rock. They are also both gay and have made a career out of appealing to queer audiences, gaining an impressive fan base in the process. However, as the new film Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara demonstrates, fame and fandom can come with a hefty price tag in the long run.
Over a decade ago, Tegan and Sara experienced a sense of irregularity when they discovered that many of their fans were being catfished online into thinking they were speaking to Tegan in community forums and on social media. Some fans and friends even went as far as to establish virtual sexual relationships with Fake Tegan, as the catfisher is referred to in the documentary. This resulted in private information about Tegan and Sara being exploited on the internet, as well as the embarrassment of their fans who believed they were making a connection with the singers.
As Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara moves away from its TIFF premiere and onto streaming this month, IN Magazine caught up with director Erin Lee Carr to discuss the making of such an atypical documentary.
Fanatical is all about obsession. How did you approach the theme of obsession in relation to Tegan and Sara’s story?
By being obsessive. I think that throughout my work as a documentary filmmaker, obsession has been a core idea and ideology that I focused on: What makes people obsessed, and what do people do when they’re obsessed. As somebody who was “obsessed,” or what I thought was obsessed with Tegan and Sarah in college, and into my adulthood, I wondered how people take it like that step further. So that’s really what I approached it as, like as an investigator, but also as a huge fan of the music. Trying to understand and put myself in the role of the people that were catfished. You can really see that in the film and the catfisher.
What insights did you gain about fandom and its complexities while working on this documentary? You’ve had a lot of experience with this topic while working on other documentaries like Britney vs Spears and The Case of the Bling Ring.
I gain thousands and thousands of insights every time I make a film about the human spirit. For this one specifically, I got in touch with what it’s like when you’re young. You really want to feel very connected to the person that’s singing the music for you, because music is about maturation. It’s about coming of age. Jenny Eliscu puts it best when it’s that trope when somebody’s on stage, you think that they’re singing to you, and the person next to them thinks that they’re singing to you, right? Our want and our need to believe that Chappell Roan’s music or Shania Twain, or Queen, like all this music was made for us when it’s really about the human condition. Coming from a place of understanding why people would fall for this, because we all want to believe that we’re being looked at, that we’re being talked to. To use the film as a way to destigmatize people that are catfished because they’re not dumb. This was an incredibly complex scheme. Every day was sort of a new, interesting point when I talked to victims or other experts or people involved in it. Every interview came with a sort of grappling with these issues.

The movie has incredible emotional depth seen from Tegan’s perspective but also from fans who were duped and embarrassed by Fake Tegan. How did you ensure that their voices were authentically represented and what was Tegan’s reaction playing back the fans’ perspective?
Tegan was really incredible, because she was able to make time in her schedule to get on pre-tape calls. We don’t show up one day with the cameras or on Zoom, and just expect you to offload your heart to us. We need to have conversations prior and a lot of people are really dubious. They felt really sorry for Tegan, and Tegan felt very sorry for them. I think that you can sense that inside the edit of the film, and how we speak to people. Giving them pause and giving them space to sort of communicate about it. It was very much something that we needed to do in order to make this film, because we can’t exploit these people all over again. I was not put on earth to exploit young, queer people that had gone through this.
Given the polarizing nature of fandom, how have audiences at TIFF responded and how do you anticipate streaming audiences will respond to the documentary?
TIFF was incredible because they’re very serious cinema watchers, and nobody was on their phone. I think it was a capacity of 1,200 people and we were very nearly at capacity. For people to be hanging on the words and laughing at moments, I mean, it was one of the most spectacular moments of my career as a filmmaker to have people really, really inside it. But I won’t lie, my other favorite part of being a filmmaker is watching what people are saying online. You know, the website formerly known as Twitter, it’s like having people interact with it and ask questions. The mind blown emoji. I have great feelings as we head towards release. You never know what exactly is going to hit, but yeah, I have a pretty good track record for it.
I’d like to ask about the relevance of the documentary in today’s digital age given much of the events surrounding the Catfisher’s intents took place a decade ago. How do you see the film reflecting current issues surrounding online identity and community?
This is a primer for what we have ahead of us. The explosion of AI and the ability to mimic voices…scary times ahead, right? This film shows that you should listen to your gut and know when things are being weird. Just because somebody’s in a timeline and says that they’re this person, it doesn’t mean it. Also, facetime. Facetimes are going to be able to be faked. Approach the internet like your grandma would. Do that and then you’ll be a little bit better. Just be skeptical. Learn everything there is to learn on the internet. But, make sure that you’re protecting yourself.
What was the most surprising or impactful moment for you personally during the making of this documentary?
Oh, it was when I was catfished during the film! Somebody, somewhere, got me to go someplace, and then, completely refused to go there. I mean, we’re not giving away anything. But, there’s a point in the film in which I myself am a participant in the catfishing scheme. That was really frustrating. It was incredibly disappointing, but not surprising, given that the story is about catfishing.
After exploring such a layered topic, do you have any specific stories you’re eager to tackle next?
I’m always developing six different things. I think this is my 10th film. I have a film coming out on HBO the same week as this film. I’m also doing scripted projects. I’m co-creating a scripted show based on the infamous crime saga that happened in the South. It’s called The Murdoch Murders.
Oh, yeah!
Yeah, about a lawyer scion who killed his wife and child, and many, many deaths occurred before and after.
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