Matthew Johnson accidentally convinced several grandparents he made a documentary about a school shooting. He was in Sarasota, Fla., where a group of geriatrics had just seen his movie “The Dirties.”
“At the end of the movie, I went to do a Q&A and we had this bizarre first minute of me answering questions from people who thought what they watched was 100 percent real,” Johnson told TheWrap.
Johnson’s movie, which won the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, depicts the bullying of a high school kid and the violent outcome of that abuse. Though based on his experiences and those of his friends, it is a complete fiction.