Hulu has picked up the documentary “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,” which will launch Oct. 18 on the streamer. Produced by Story Syndicate and Erin Lee Carr‘s Carr Lot Prods., the film focus on a long-running catfishing scheme that has impacted fans of Canadian indie rock band Tegan and Sara.
The doc follows what happened when Tegan Quin (who performs with sister Sara Quin) was hacked in 2011 and her personal files exposed. From there, her identity was stolen and used in a complex catfish scheme to defraud the band’s fans and the community that had developed around Tegan and Sara.
“Tegan and Sara ascended to global fame as one of the most influential queer indie rock bands of their generation,” the documentary’s synopsis noted. “They worked hard to cultivate an inclusive and passionate fanbase around the world. Listeners were drawn to the duo’s beautifully confessional lyrics, but there was more than just the music. Fans found within the community the only safe space to come out and be queer during a time when few bands would declare allyship, let alone celebrate their own queer identity. But a bad actor took advantage of the community’s trust and comfort.”
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Dubbed “Fegan” — as in, “Fake Tegan” — the thief aimed to ensnare members of that community, and those actions led to a “severe ripple effect of mistrust, anxiety, and self-doubt.” Tegan Quin eventually tapped documentary filmmaker and investigator Erin Lee Carr (“Britney Vs. Spears”) to find the culprit.
Along with the original 2011 investigation that the Tegan and Sara team took to find out what was going on, the film uncovers new victims and potential suspects — “and reveal sinister and unforeseen twists. Told through Tegan’s own voice, the voices of deceived fans, a trove of visceral communications between fake Tegan and their victims, and the visual history of the band’s behind-the-scenes archive, this documentary feature is a thriller, a caper, a whodunnit, and an intimate personal journey rolled into one. It cuts to the heart of love and betrayal, fame and fandom, desire and delusion in the 21st century.”
Recently, Tegan and Sara turned their memoir “High School” into an Amazon Freevee series from filmmaker Clea DuVall. The identical twins started Tegan and Sara in 1998, and have now released ten albums. The duo was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 and released their most recent album, “Crybaby,” in 2022. Last year, the released the graphic novel “Junior High.” The prolific siblings produce the Substack newsletter “The Loners Club,” and oversee the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which won the Juno Humanitarian award this year.
Hulu’s expanding stable of documentaries and docuseries include recent entry “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini,” which which became Hulu’s most watched docuseries after one week of streaming.
“Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara” is directed and produced by Erin Lee Carr and produced by Elyssa Hess, with producer Jenny Eliscu. The doc is also executive produced by Tegan Quin and Sara Quin; as well as Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin and Kate Barry for Story Syndicate.
