 "Photo: Sara Young/The Daily Texan")
The Found Footage Festival is a videotaped circus of the bizarre.
The show, which runs for an hour and a half, features everyone from furniture salesmen to knife and blowgun enthusiasts. Now in its fifth year, the festival began Sunday at the Alamo Drafthouse with a video titled “Exercise Video Montage #5.”
“We’d thought we’d kick things off with something that’s become a Found Footage Festival staple,” said Joe Pickett, co-creator and co-host of the festival. “It’s mainly because we just find so many of these goddamn tapes everywhere we go.”
“There’s a homemade exercise tape in here by a guy who calls himself ‘Rock,’” added Nick Pruehe, the other co-creator and co-host. “The thing to keep in mind about Rock is that he has a very sweaty stomach. You see this little bead of sweat at the beginning of the video that gradually progresses and becomes bigger.”
It is in this fashion that Pickett and Prueher introduce each segment in their festival devoted to randomly discovered video footage. And although the duo has been watching obscure videos since Prueher came across a McDonald’s training video in high school, the incriminating and unintentionally humorous videos they find never cease to amaze them.
“We’ve developed a really high tolerance [for the videos],” Prueher said. “We’re masochists in a way — we get a perverse enjoyment out of the videos. The worse it is, the more we enjoy it. We have to watch a lot of religious videos, and those are always painful. But we make a point not to fast forward. You never know when you’re going to find that gem.”
Earlier this year, Pickett and Prueher had the opportunity to exchange favorite videos with Arrested Development’s David Cross. Cross gave them a video dating reel from 1987 that gave 60 men 90 seconds each to woo potential mates.
“The main thing we’ve gleaned from it is that no men from 1987 were attractive,” Pickett said. “It’s amazing that anybody was born in 1987, considering the dating pool back then.”
It is interesting to see what the men deem the most important information about themselves — one mentioned, “I’m interested in most phases of data processing.” Another said he would not date big, overgrown monsters who only think about food. Another gave up, saying that he didn’t see the use in even recording a dating video.
“It’s easy to make fun of those guys, but we tried a video dating service a few years ago,” Prueher said. “It was kind of embarrassing.”
When they’re not involved in video dating, Pickett and Pruher are scouring thrift stores while touring the Found Footage Festival across the United States.
“We get into town, and the first thing we do is visit the thrift stores,” Prueher said. “We were driving into Austin from Houston the other day and saw a Half-Priced Books. We found a video there called ‘Doggy Sitter,’ which is a DVD that you play for your dog to entertain him or her when you’re not there. We haven’t watched it yet, but it looks absolutely ridiculous.”
In order to keep producing the tour, Pickett and Prueher urge locals to notify them of any obscure videos they find that may have a place in future Found Footage showings.
“If anyone has found a video we might like in or around Austin, please send it to us,” Prueher said. “That’s how we keep the show going, by having contributions from people.”
The pair’s newest videos are available on their Web site, foundfootagefest.com.
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