Director Brett Ratner kisses actor Nev Schulman at the premiere of Catfish in New York. (AP)

Los Angeles, Sept. 16 (Reuters): Facebook hits the silver screen this autumn with two movies coming out within weeks of each other at a time when social media is at an all-time high.

Independent documentary Catfish and glitzy Hollywood feature The Social Network could not be more different. But both could very well be two sides of the same coin.

“We’ve got to a point where it’s time to reflect on it,” said Catfish filmmaker Ariel Schulman. “The Social Network shows us how we got here. Catfish shows us where we’re at.”

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world with over 500 million active users. Sites like MySpace, microblogging site Twitter and Tumblr are also thriving, creating an intricate online world where everything from dating websites to video game communities have users who put their personal lives out on public display.

As Catfish illustrates, not everyone on these sites is who they say they are.

Catfish, which opens in US theatres tomorrow, follows Nev Schulman, a photographer who falls in love with a girl on Facebook. Over time, their romance blossoms and they begin to text and talk on the phone.

When Nev, his brother Ariel and their friend Henry discover some startling revelations, they set off on a road trip to meet the girl in person.

The Social Network, arrives on October 1, with a pedigree that includes Oscar-nominated David Fincher directing from a screenplay by the four-time Emmy Award winning Aaron Sorkin.

The film is based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, now 26, is played by Jesse Eisenberg. “It’s interesting that these two movies are coming out at the same time,” said Schulman, who directed Catfish with Henry Joost.

“We are, however, many years in to the social networking phenomenon and I think it has hit a tipping point,” he said. Schulman, along with Joost, shot his brother Nev’s 2008 real-life romance and road trip to visit the girl of his dreams.