The Found Footage Festival, the acclaimed touring showcase of odd and hilarious found videos, will make a one-night-only appearance in Columbus this month as part of a 2009 North American tour. Hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, whose credits include The Onion and the Late Show with David Letterman, are excited to present their new lineup of video clips and live comedy for the first time in Ohio at the Drexel East Theatre (2254 E. Main St. in Bexley) on Friday, April 24th at 7:30 and 9:30 pm. The Found Footage Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that compiles more than an hour’s worth of footage from videos that were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout the country.
Curators Pickett and Prueher host each screening in-person and provide their unique observations and commentary on these found video obscurities. From the curiously-produced industrial training video to the forsaken home movie donated to Goodwill, the Found Footage Festival resurrects these forgotten treasures and serves them up in a lively celebration of all things found.
Among the video clips to be featured in the show:
-17 workplace sexual harassment videos, edited down to three minutes of just the best reenactments
-A brand-new collection of exercise videos featuring Playgirl’s 1985 Man of the Year, a scantily-clad Angela Lansbury, and a guru who calls himself “The Laughing Yogi.”
-Video contributions by Chris Elliott and David Cross
-An instructional video on how to toilet train cats
The Found Footage Festival was founded in New York in 2004 and has gone on to sell out hundreds of shows across the U.S. and Canada, including the HBO Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. The festival has been featured on National Public Radio, ABC World News, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and G4 TV’s Attack of the Show, and has been named a “Critic’s Pick” in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett began collecting found videotapes in 1991 after stumbling across a training video entitled, “Inside and Outside Custodial Duties,” at a McDonald’s in their home state of Wisconsin. Since then, they have compiled an impressive collection of strange, outrageous and profoundly stupid videos. Pickett, a former film technician, and Prueher, a former researcher at the Late Show with David Letterman, have written for The Onion and Entertainment Weekly and recently premiered their feature-length documentary, “Dirty Country,” at the South By Southwest Film Festival (www.dirtycountrymovie.com).
ABOUT THE VENUE
Since 1981, the Drexel Theatres have been Central Ohio’s first source for independent film and the best of Hollywood and international cinema. The Drexel East Theatre is located at 2254 East Main St. in historic downtown Bexley. Tickets to the Found Footage Festival are $8.50 and are available in advance at www.drexel.net. For more information, call the theatre’s box office at 614-231-1050.
