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Fake News Fairytale takes us to the unlikely epicentre of fake news: Veles, Macedonia. In Veles, since the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, teenagers have been creating fake news stories that generate thousands of hits on social media. These young entrepreneurs have made money off of advertising revenue generated from their fake stories going viral, introducing a ‘digital gold rush’ to Veles. Fake News Fairytale tells the true story of ‘Sashko,’ a fake news writer from Veles, and in doing so, is a playful meditation on truth, lies and politics in a globalised, internet world.
“The sinister story of ‘Sashko’ in Kate Stonehill’s ‘Fake News Fairytale’ (2018) demonstrates the power wielded recklessly by anonymous fingers clicking and tapping across the globe, exploited by morally dubious authority figures and money-men.
The juxtaposition of the childlike soundtrack of a fairytale with the real-life political consequences that fake news has encouraged is mesmerising: everyone loves a story; the tragedy is that this one is true.
- Review, Corridor8