The Found Footage Festival began, as too few great things do, in the back of a McDonald’s in Wisconsin. The catalyst on that day was what co-curator and host Nick Prueher refers to as a “remarkably dumb and insulting” training video for employees that was just too good to not share with his friends. And so The Found Footage Festival was born. The first showing was held eight years ago, and they’ve grown to over 100 shows a year at this point!
I recently had a chance to talk to Prueher about FFF, which takes over the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on the evening of the November 14. He and co-curator Joe Pickett take their task pretty seriously, and this means scouring break rooms in other restaurants, Goodwills and Salvation Armies for more tapes to feed their Frankenstein monster. They sometimes get a little help from their friends when people offer them tapes from their personal collections after shows. Their selection process borders on masochistic and was described as “grueling” by Prueher. Once a year, the two lock themselves in an apartment with all of the tapes they’ve gathered over the past year and watch them. ALL of them. Prueher admits to sometimes needing to slog through 50 tapes before they find anything they can use.
So what sorts of things ultimately get picked for the Found Footage Festival? What do these two dudes cloistered in an apartment and probably whacked out on Doritos and Mountain Dew think is funny? Prueher characterizes it like this: “Our basic criterion is that the video has to be unintentionally funny. Merely bad doesn’t cut it. It has to be entertainingly bad. You know it when you see it.” These things include but are not limited to “a video featuring a woman whose enthusiasm for craft sponging borders on psychotic,” “Highlights from a 1986 video about how to care for your ferret” (only the highlights mind you) …and then there is “Dancing with Frank Pacholski.” Prueher hipped me to this mind-expanding clip of a public access TV show that aired only twice in the Los Angeles area, and it defies expectations, explanations and logic. Pacholski, a hairy, portly man wearing only an American flag speedo dances seductively to classical music for an audience of about eight confused and upset octogenarians. Prueher promises that the long lost second installment of this fabled series will be shown at the Michigan in Ann Arbor.
With such gems on their resume, where does FFF go from here? Well, Pickett and Prueher just released a book called “VHS” that features 300 of their favorite covers from tapes unearthed during their search, which you can grab for a low low price on their website at foundfootagefest.com. Even more exciting is the possible development of a found footage television show, about which Prueher is cautiously optimistic.
If you’re tired of film festivals with subtext and deep focus, FFF is for you. Admission to the Found Footage Fest is $11. Tickets can be purchased at foundfootagefest.com.
