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Let’s watch home videos

Not our own, of course

Amy Lawrence | Guest Writer
curious_kiki@hotmail.com

Have you ever regretted throwing out old home videos? Don’

t worry, they may have found a new home. The Found Footage Festival is coming to Sacramento.

It may have started out as a hobby for two college friends, but it was transformed into a live comedy show and film screening that fans all over the country look forward to each year.

“Basically, it’s a guided tour through our collection of odd and hilarious videos that we’ve found over the years at thrift stores, garage sales and other places like that,”

says festival co-founder Nick Prueher.

He and longtime friend Joe Pickett have been collecting old, found footage for almost 15 years. In 2004, they decided to take their hobby to the next level by establishing the Found Footage Festival.

Since then, this festival has appeared in numerous venues 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.

Robert McKeown, owner of Movies on a Big Screen Theatre on 4th Street in West Sacramento, will be housing the festival for the first time this year.

“These guys are hilarious. The found-footage concept is the most bizarre stuff, and it way predates YouTube,”

McKeown says.

The festival is for everyone, but according to Joe Pickett who will be hosting the festival with Prueher, college students are the most likely to appreciate it fully. Pickett says the Found Footage Festival is made up of the videos the younger City College generation were watching as kids.

“We have a collection of some of the worst training videos,” Pickett says. “It’s just nonstop stupidity, but the good kind of stupid. That’s exactly what this show is all about-unintentionally funny videos.”

People who attend may even be surprised and come across a video of old relatives long forgotten.

The Found Footage Festival will be at Movies on a Big Screen at 7 p.m. on May 1. Tickets are $10.