Though not mentioned in the documentary, the source of Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Fraud is one man’s 100-plus hours of footage he uploaded to YouTube. Not much is known about him or his family, though paying attention to smaller details eventually reveals where he’s from and the names of some of his family members.
It’s not the type of video that would go viral anywhere — after all, hundreds of millions of hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every hour. Fleischer-Camp doesn’t give audiences anything off the top or throughout the film to guide expectations or thoughts in any way. There’s a simple title card, and then you’re plunging straight into the life of this unknown family. No subtitles, no explanations.
Until the main “story” begins to unfurl, the first dozen or so minutes can be hard to watch. There’s much intentional banality, from footage of a birthday party to shots of the sky to a yard sale. There are numerous jump cuts, making it seem like it could be a form of YouTube Poop. But soon, audiences will realize that the quieter scenes early on are clues as to what the family will eventually decide to do.
The leadup to the dramatic act is done slowly and builds a natural source of tension. Once they commit the act, there’s no going back, and the tone of the film changes from a slice of life to something else entirely. The couple and their two kids go about almost as if nothing has changed, and viewers can get insights into their personality from little things — for example, it’s fairly clear the man can’t help filming his partner’s curves, with numerous shots throughout the film.
If anything, Fraud is a feat of editing — no doubt Fleischer-Camp spent dozens and dozens of hours finding the right footage to turn into this 53-minute film. It’s also a reflection of our society-at-large. Sometimes we feel so desperate for attention, we’ll film anything — even if it’s incriminating.
Fraud will play at the Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto on May 1, 3 and 6. See Digital Journal’s 2016 Hot Docs coverage here.
