Ok this is an odd series of events that's happened this past month, and I've decided to open up about it to let people know something really strange is going on and to be careful if anyone asks you to be in a film whose details you don't really know anything about. There's been times when people were tricked into appearing in documentaries that portrayed them badly, ie Ben Stein's 2008 creationist documentary Expelled tricking several biologists to appear in the movie just to embarrass them and quote their interviews out of context. If this documentary/docuseries does come out one day and turns out to be a disaster, this will be a record of some of the warning signs that happened along the way.

On August 31, a filmmaker DMed me over Instagram, but I was attending SacAnime at the time so I didn't see the message until a few days after I got home. The filmmaker said they were interested in making a docuseries about the furry fandom and wanted to dive into some of the darker stories of the fandom, and asked if I'd be open to answering questions about a particular dark subject they were researching. I have received messages from scammers on Twitter and Instagram before, so I was skeptical if this were a legitimate offer. The filmmaker's Instagram account was empty so that seemed suspicious. The filmography of this company had award winning documentaries on events like the Moon landing, famous people like Queen Elizabeth, and a few true crime stories, but nothing that would lead you to think they were interested in furries, so that raised even more suspicions. For all I knew, I could have been messaged by a scammer impersonating someone in the film industry. I looked up the filmmaker's name and found they had an account on LinkedIn, so I messaged them and asked if the Instagram account belonged to them. To my surprise, the filmmaker replied yes and apologized for the account looking suspicious. They asked if I'd be open to an interview over Zoom speaking about the dark subject they were interested in. I politely declined the offer though, because the dark topic they wanted to ask me about was uncomfortable and I did not want to risk embarrassing myself or drawing unwanted attention. I'd much rather talk about things like my art or more positive subjects in a documentary on furries. I have no idea if this series will portray furries positively or negatively, so I tried to ask for more details of what exactly this docuseries will be about and how much depth they're going into with these dark topics. So far I have not received a reply back.

I wasn't going to say anything publically about this until I got a DM over Twitter from Furry blogger Dogpatch Press. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had been contacted by these filmmakers, and Dogpatch has just posted an article about it. https://dogpatch.press/2023/09/18/media-producers-furry-docu-series/ I mentioned this story to a couple other people, and it was suggested to me that more people need to know because we don't know what exactly is going on with this docuseries and whether the interviewees will be portrayed fairly. It's strange to me this film company is very interested in dark furry fandom stories. I've watched You Tubers that cover dark internet stories and internet lolcows, but those creators are usually amateur video makers and aren't working for bigger studios. I don't understand why an award winning film company that has documentaries on larger-than-life figures like the late Queen Elizabeth is now interested in focusing on stories you'd expect to see on a furry drama board. Maybe this docuseries will surprise us and show furries acting positively in response to these dark stories, or maybe it'll be a hit piece that portrays furries badly. We won't know for sure until it airs. So in the meantime, if anyone gets contacted by non-furry filmmakers requesting an interview about the fandom, BE CAREFUL! I declined because I wasn't sure what direction this docuseries would go in, I didn't want to embarass myself, and the topic they asked me about felt too uncomfortable. Maybe some people will disagree and will want to participate with these kinds of film projects, but if you do, just keep these things in mind:

-always vet who you're talking to and what company they work for
-make sure to ask for more details about what the documentary is about. If the filmmaker gives vague answers or doesn't reply, that's a red flag
-Don't sign NDAs or contracts you don't understand
-keep records of communications you have with the filmmakers
-don't agree to answer questions that make you uncomfortable, and don't talk about subjects you're not knowledgeable about
-don't give away personal info you don't want the public to know
-if the filmmaker starts talking about paying you but it involves doing fishy things with checks or asking for your bank numbers, it's a scam (that didn't happen to me, but I'm sure there's some con-artist filmmakers out there that operate this way)