If you think you know what tickling is about, you’re probably wrong. The harmless act, meant to provoke the sensation of laughter in another person through light touching of the skin, becomes the source of discomfort, harassment, and widespread abuse in “Tickled,” a documentary co-directed by David Farrier and Dylan Reeve. The film begins with Farrier — a New Zealand-based journalist whose droll, relaxing voice-over accompanies the entire movie — discovering, during an online search, a video of what purports to be a tickling competition. Who knew this type of thing existed? He reaches out to the company that produced the video, Jane O’Brien Media, for more information. What he gets is a slew of messages filled with hate-speech.This, of course, only makes him more curious. Reeve soon becomes involved, and the two decide to dig deeper and make a documentary about what they turn up. They believe they may be tracking a subculture related to foot fetishism, and the possible ringleader behind it. But as soon as they begin, they get pushback from Jane O’Brien: Three men appear in New Zealand to meet with the filmmakers, threatening lawsuits and delivering other ominous warnings. The men object to the pair’s reaching out to people appearing in the videos and collecting information. The legal basis for their objections is dubious, however, so Farrier and Reeve continue their inquiries. They go to Los Angeles and attempt to crash a shoot. Later, they travel to Florida to learn more about the world of tickling videos. They begin to hear stories about Jane O’Brien going to great lengths to discredit the personal lives of participants who wanted out. The more they learn, the more questions they have: Who is Jane O’Brien, and why has nobody ever met her? How long has she been doing this? What exactly is this?It certainly goes far beyond tickling. It involves money, stolen identities, forged documents, criminals, shadow organizations, and more. Farrier and Reeve discover that other journalists have investigated and unearthed startling details. But eventually they all hit a dead end, or the story got away from them. The two filmmakers, in many ways, are picking up an existing trail, which they follow despite massive resistance.And that resistance continues. People associated with Jane O’Brien Media reportedly attended the documentary’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, and when it screened at the True/False festival in Missouri in March, Farrier and Reeve were served with a defamation lawsuit. Since then, there has been a campaign to discredit it, and at its June 18 Los Angeles premiere, two of its subjects confronted the filmmakers.There is more, but to reveal too many details would strip the film of its defining characteristic: suspense. “Tickled” belongs to the same, extremely watchable, this-can’t-be-real category as HBO’s “The Jinx,” with which it shares more than just tone: Both films require you to go in with very little knowledge and reward you for sticking with it to the end (not that it’s that’s a chore). A narrative that started as strange gets weirder, and sadder, and almost difficult to comprehend: The subject is revealed and is confronted, but what happens from there? Whatever it is, nobody is going to be laughing.
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