Collagists don't always get the respect they
deserve: Even wildly original artists, from Beck to DJ Shadow, have to labor
under the notion that they aren't creating something of their own, but rather
building from materials already provided by true artistes. Nick Prueher and Joe
Pickett, the curating/commenting team behind The Found Footage Festival,
probably don't give a shit about any of that: Their mission over the past few
years has been to scavenge for the greatest cultural detritus of the VHS era
and offer it—via live presentations and barely distributed DVDs—to
the masses. In this quest, they're basically alone and undeniably original,
with just a slight nod to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and perhaps Found
Magazine.
The duo's third DVD installment screens
like a meticulously curated YouTube party, one with all the digging for gold
done by others. Pieces of some of these videos have made the Internet rounds,
including Dennis Madalone's ridiculously over-the-top "America We Stand As One,"
which screens as part of a "patriotic medley" that also includes Hulk Hogan's "Real
American." But that's just the start: Pickett and Prueher dig deep into the
American psyche (or at least the American psyche that wants to cheaply record
itself and add crappy-looking titles) to find ridiculous treasures that were
never meant for mass consumption. The video that started the Found Footage phenomenon
was a training tape for McDonald's custodians, and many more company-produced
pieces have found their way into the Fest over the years: This edition
(available through foundfootagefest.com)
includes a montage of horribly produced training videos from Jewel grocery
stores, Wendy's (which features some D-level rapping), and Arby's. It's an
alternately horrifying and hilarious look at how employers view their workers.
Elsewhere on the disc: religious clowns who visit
hospitals, Playgirl's Hunkercize, a scary treatise on pool hustling and life from
Pretty Boy Floyd, lots of public-access bits, cat massage, He-Man, and more. It's
engagingly random, but every video inspires the same question: "Who thought
this was a good idea?" At a couple of points in the show, Prueher and Pickett
(both funny guys, clearly) can't help but inject themselves into the
proceedings: They star in a few spot-on parody videos, including one
co-starring Chris Elliott, that work as perfect companion pieces to the
strangeness that inspired them to gather these clips in the first place.
Key features: The disc includes extended versions of the
original material, plus a montage of ridiculous nude scenes—including the
incredibly strange "Do The Macarena: Totally Nude!"