The Found Footage Festival is an American film festival and live

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

event and featuring unusual and humorous found footage clips and films.

History

Founded in 2004, the Festival originated in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

by Joe Pickett, Nick Prueher and Geoff Haas, childhood friends from Wisconsin. While still in high school, Pickett and Prueher began collecting videos from garage sales, training videos from odd jobs, and copies of tapes from a video production house. The friends would then play selections from this collection for entertainment at parties, a practice which continued through their college years at the

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UW–Eau Claire, UWEC or simply Eau Claire) is a public university in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's and master's degrees. UW–Eau Claire ...

. In 2004, Pickett and Prueher quit their day jobs to focus on production of their first feature documentary, '' Dirty Country''. They started the touring Found Footage Festival show to fund the production of the documentary. In addition to its regular touring schedule, the Festival has appeared at the

HBO US Comedy Arts Festival The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component calle ...

, Just For Laughs, the

New York Comedy Festival The New York Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival co-founded by Jarrod Moses and Caroline Hirsch in 2004. The festival is produced in association with Comedy Central, the Huffington Post, and Carolines comedy club located at Times Squar ...

, the

Impakt Festival The Impakt Festival is a yearly manifestation on media art, founded in 1988 in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands. It showcases films, video art, performances, music, conferences and other special events with works from international artists. Deal ...

in the Netherlands, and the Central Standard Film Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Festival is currently based out of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In April 2017,

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

filed a lawsuit against Prueher and Pickett for fraud and copyright infringement, after they appeared on multiple television morning shows (including Gray-owned WEAU-TV) as various fictitious "touring acts", including a fake

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. These ...

duo known as "Chop and Steele", and utilized the footage during their show as a critique of television stations only booking acts based on a press release and no further research. The parties agreed to a settlement the following year. In 2022, the feature documentary ''Chop & Steele'', co-directed by

Ben Steinbauer Benjamin Jeffrey Steinbauer (born July 28, 1977) is an American director, writer and producer, who is best known for directing the feature documentary ''Winnebago Man'' (2009). Steinbauer has directed other documentaries, including ''Chop & Stee ...

and Berndt Mader, made its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. The comedy film follows Prueher and Pickett as they book their gag strongman routine on unsuspecting morning news shows, but when their pranks go viral and land them in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate, the stress of the lawsuit and pressure to continue their pranks threatens their livelihood and tests their lifelong friendship. The film includes appearances by comedians

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series ''Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitcom ...

Bobcat Goldthwait Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. ...

Reggie Watts Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...

, and

Howie Mandel Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian-American comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel voiced the character Gizmo in the 1984 film ''Gremlins'' and the 1990 sequel '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch''. I ...

Show structure

The found clips are projected onto a theater screen, with the "host/curators" hosting the event from a staging area in the front. The clips are presented in succession from a master

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, with the hosts controlling the timing and order by remote control. In addition to introducing their found footage and presenting a brief history of how it was come across, the hosts offer running jokes and commentary during the clips, like a live version of ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

'', and implement live comedic sketches and pre-recorded bits between some of the selections. Although the show evolves with new material for each tour, its midwestern influence is still prominent in its source material, and many of the clips come from this region of the country. In addition, the show continues to feature staple clips that have become fan favorites, including: * ''It Only Takes a Second'', a safety video from Federated Mutual Insurance * Outtakes from

Winnebago Winnebago can refer to: * The exonym of the Ho-Chunk tribe of Native North Americans with reservations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin ** Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, a federally recognized tribe group in the state ** The Winnebago language of the ...

promotional videos featuring a foul-mouthed rep named Jack Rebney, now retired and blind. The phenomenon surrounding the clips became the subject of a 2009 documentary called ''

Winnebago Man ''Winnebago Man'' is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Ben Steinbauer. The film follows the Internet phenomenon created by a series of twenty-year-old outtakes from a Winnebago sales video featuring profane outbursts from a salespers ...

'', which featured the curators in several interviews. Rebney himself made an appearance at the festival. *

Harvey Sid Fisher Harvey Sid Fisher is a singer, songwriter, musician, actor, model, and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and performing mostly humorous songs about astrology, golf, the battle of the sexes, quitting smoking, the F-word, and wanting hi ...

music videos of songs describing the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

* clips of the

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

show '' Stairway to Stardom'' * clips from ''Carnival in Rio'', a 1983 TV travelogue featuring

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

Availability

In 2006, the Found Footage Festival began offering for sale a DVD of the show's March 25, 2006, screening at

Galapagos Art Space Galapagos Art Space was an arts center that moved from Williamsburg to DUMBO in Brooklyn before moving to Detroit, Michigan where planned to operate as Galapagos Detroit. Its status is currently unknown. Robert Elmes founded Galapagos Art Space i ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, called ''Volume One: Live in Brooklyn''. This has been supplemented by the 2007 release of a second DVD, ''Volume Two: Live in Minneapolis'', as well as the 2008 release of ''Volume Three: Live in San Francisco''. In December 2009, the Found Footage Festival released ''Volume Four: Live in Tucson''. In September 2010 ''The Found Footage Show'' premiered on

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

website. The series, which was hosted by Pickett and Prueher, showcased found footage clips and ran for 36 episodes over 2 seasons. In December 2010 ''The Found Footage Festival Volume Five'' was released. The DVD was filmed in front of a live audience at the historic Oriental Theatre in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

and features a guest appearance by

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

. On June 16, 2012 the program for ''The Found Footage Festival Volume Six'' was filmed at the Music Box Theater in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The DVD was released in August 2012 in conjunction with a 100-show tour. In August 2012 the duo appeared on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'' to talk about the festival and show clips from their current tour.

DVD releases

*
Found Footage Festival Volume One: Live in Brooklyn (2006)
' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume Two: Live in Minneapolis (2007)'' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume Three: Live in San Francisco (2008)'' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume Four: Live in Tucson (2009)'' * ''Found Footage Festival "Zany" Zingers and Bonked-Out Blunders (2010)'' *
Found Footage Festival Volume Five: Live in Milwaukee (2010)
' *
Found Footage Festival Volume Six: Live in Chicago (2012)
' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume 7: Live in North Carolina (2014)'' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume 8: Live in New York (2017)'' * ''Found Footage Festival Volume 9: Live in Austin (2020)''

References

{{Reflist

External links