Little lies: American Animals and the 2010-12 docu-drama boom

This much is true: we made a podcast about the film American Animals and the spate of docu-dramas (The Imposter, The Act of Killing, Catfish etc) between 2010-12 that muddled fact and fiction into an entertaining, ethically-iffy new artform.

American Animals, directed by Bart Layton, is the true-ish story of four college kids who decided to rob some rare books from their local university library. Told via interviews with the robbers and dramatisations of their story, the film leaves you with the impression that you're never quite being told the whole truth.

Back in the 2010s there was a whole spate of films that did this. Films like Catfish, The Act of Killing, I'm Still Here and The Imposter (also directed by Bart Layton). We talk about why this moment happened, what it meant and where it's left us now. Plus, we hear from Bart about the importance of truth in documentary, even when you're repeating a lie.

The BFI Podcast is ...

BFI Southbank Programmer Anna Bogutskaya

BFI Digital editor Henry Barnes

Producer Peter Sale

Trust us, these are good:

• The Vanity Fair story on the Transy Book Heist.

• The original, true (?) story of The Imposter's Frederic Bourdain.

• Why Catfish is cooked (Vulture)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.