Reading the synopsis provided by True/False, “Tickled” sounds silly. Competitive endurance tickling is an odd topic to base an entire documentary on. Maybe it would work for a short television segment, but not an entire documentary.

In fact, that’s how the entire story starts. New Zealand journalist David Farrier wanted to do a short piece on the weird yet seemingly innocent sport of “competitive endurance tickling.” But right off the bat, his simple attempt to reach out to Jane O’Brien Media to find out more is combatted with hostility, homophobic remarks and legal threats.

Farrier is not deterred and continues his investigations into the weird sport and the responses from the company that runs it all. What he finds is not what you’d expect. The more Farrier unravels the truth, the crazier and more unbelievable it gets. What started out as a fluff piece has turned into an investigation into a 20-year plot of money, power, secret desires and one person’s online reign of terror.

This is one of those instances in life where the truth is stranger than fiction. During the Q&A after the Saturday showing, Farrier said that when he and his co-director Dylan Reeve showed the film to test audiences in New Zealand, many originally believed it was a mockumentary because the story was so fantastic.

“Tickled” is a crazy journey into the workings of an online presence that has spanned over 20 years. The whole thing is oddly terrifying. The film has its funny moments though; there’s an awareness that the topic is a bit ridiculous. Farrier narrates the film, infusing his own sense of humor throughout when the film needed it most.

While the tongue-in-cheek of our narrator makes the film a bit more lighthearted at times, the documentary still gets progressively darker as the story becomes more and more serious. People’s lives have been threatened and ruined because they participated in “competitive tickling” for extra money when they needed it. It’s sad to see how much it’s affected their lives and the film does a great job of creating sympathy for their situation.

I walked into the theater not knowing what to expect. What I got was an hour and a half of riveting journalism that made me feel every emotion. The twists and turns kept appearing throughout the story. When I thought it couldn’t get any crazier, it did.

The film’s greatest accomplishment was its ability to keep the story human. Interviews with people helped the story move along and fill in blanks from the past. Farrier and Reeve could have easily made fun of the people who participated in these videos or mocked the people who actually enjoyed it. Rather, they used every opportunity they had to give people a chance to explain their story and their feelings. Even at the end, when I thought there was nothing left to do, Farrier and Reeve go the extra mile to try to get the full picture.

It astounds me how much trouble this film and investigation is still causing. Farrier is still receiving threats of legal action. Just Saturday, someone he thought was a fan came up to him and handed him legal documents for a lawsuit. On Friday, two people had to be kicked out by police for trying to film the documentary.

“Tickled” is not only an interesting story, it’s an amazing piece of investigative journalism. It shows the power of persistence, ingenuity and luck that come together in a work like this.

I hope that future legal issues won’t prevent the sharing of this film with more audiences in the future, because this is something that I think anyone would enjoy and walk away thinking about the impact of money, power and the internet.

_MOVE gives the film five out of five stars._