MISTER ORGAN
Kiwi journalist David Farrier is known for engaging with the stranger side of life in films like his stranger-than-fiction competitive tickling exposé Tickled, drawing bizarre subjects into the light through his affable but penetrating investigations. But Farrier may have met his match with the subject of his latest doc, a harrowing odyssey into the dark heart of a uniquely toxic individual. Things start innocently enough in 2016, as Farrier begins investigating a man who’s been clamping the tires of cars parked outside an Auckland antiques shop, then demanding hundreds of dollars to let them go. It turns out that the man behind the clamping — the evocatively named Michael Organ — isn’t just a one-trick scammer. Organ has a colorful history of compulsive lying, false identities, and vindictive lawsuits stretching back decades. Farrier manages to establish a prickly, ambiguous rapport with his elusive subject, but the deeper he gets, the more it seems that Organ’s intentions aren’t just eccentric — they’re downright sinister.
In Competition: Documentary Feature
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