DETAILS
Plaza Theatre
Plaza Theatre
Thursday, November 13 - Thursday, November 13 Friday, November 14 - Friday, November 14
More in: Film
Find It...
“I think one thing that would be a common thread throughout all the videos we gravitate towards is that, oftentimes, they’re made by people with a tremendous amount of ambition and very little talent,” says Nick Pruerer, co-curator of the Found Footage Festival. “There are a lot of people like that out there, and they all seem to have access to video equipment. For some reason, the combination just really works well with what we’re doing.”
The Found Footage Festival is a travelling show curated by Pruerer and his friend Joe Pickett, who’ve had a lifelong compulsion to collect obscure, esoteric and downright strange videotapes. The festival is a showcase of their best finds, accompanied by the story of each video's discovery and peanut gallery commentary from Pruerer and Pickett throughout. They found their first in high school — Inside and Outside Custodial Duties by the McDonald’s Corporation — and have since taken a special shine to bizarre fast food training tapes.
“I remember watching this video and thinking, man, here’s this billion-dollar company, and this is the best shit they can come up with,” says Pruerer. “This is so insulting, and I think what struck me about it was this was supposed to be watched by yourself in the context of a break room. I think we realized once we started showing our finds — and that video in particular — to friends, we found that something magical happens when you take this stuff and give people permission to laugh at it.”
Though the McDonald's tape has since fallen out of rotation, they will feature several new videos at their Calgary show, including, but not limited to: workplace sexual harassment videos, a selection of exercise tapes featuring Playgirl Magazine's 1985 man of the year and an instructional video on how to train cats.
“We have a Wendy's training video that's a followup to the one we showed last time we were in Calgary,” says Pruerer. “It was one where a magical, rapping crew trainer came out and told everyone how to make burgers on the grill, and they actually made a sequel to that about sandwich making. And there's a woman named Sister Sam who magically appears and teaches everyone how to make sandwiches.”
Though both Pruerer and Pickett have expanded into higher profile endeavours, such as writing for the David Letterman Show, The Onion and The Colbert Report, and have now directed their first feature film (Dirty Country, premièring in Calgary this week), Pruerer says that the festival is what they were both “meant to do.” Their efforts haven't gone unnoticed, either. The Onion asked them to put on a miniaturized version of their program at their Christmas party several years ago, and it was there they befriended popular comedian and angry man David Cross, who contributed one of the strangest videos in their collection.
“David had a video for a sandwich shop called Cozy Zando that he would show in his standup act every once in awhile,” says Pruerer. “So he gave that to us, and we just formed a relationship based on sharing ridiculous videos. We were sort of kindred spirits. He also gave us one for a grocery store in Chicago called Jewel. I don't know how he ended up with it, but it's kind of this legendary training video that's been passed through the hands of many comedians throughout the years — people at The Onion and whatnot.”
The Found Footage Festival is appearing in Calgary this week (courtesy of the fine people at the Calgary Underground Film Festival) and will be running Thursday, November 13 and Friday, November 14 at the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $15 if you’re a functioning member of society, or $12 if you’re a good-for-nothing student.
Prueher and Pickett will also be in attendance at the Friday, November 14 screening of Dirty Country at The Uptown. The documentary, directed by the duo, looks at raunchy country music singer Larry Pierce.
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)