A glorious, affectionate celebration of VHS weirdos

Date
1 May 2015

When a digital format takes over from its analogue predecessor, often the rougher, nostalgia-infused antecedent takes on a charming quality. The fetishisation and popularity of vinyl is the prime example, but many also look to the big, bulky VHS video as something to be cherished. Few perhaps cherish it more than the people behind the Found Footage Film Festival, which is currently touring the world from its New York home.

The festival showcases footage from videos that were “found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters across the country,” its organisers explain. The festival is run by hilarious duo Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, who on stage at the Soho Theatre come across a bit like affable, grown-up stoner kids, raised on a diet of curiosity, goofing about and the forgotten bits at the bottom of charity shop bargain bins.

For this tour, the videos are united by their celebration of “weirdos,” but all in an affectionate, rather than mocking or exploitative way. And boy, there’s no denying the calibre of weird we’re presented with. “Wonderful bullshit is what we show!”, Joe declares. “We’re dedicating this show 100% to weirdos. We’ve based our careers on weirdos.”

Among said out-of-the-ordinary folk is a woman who gets very, very excited about a sponge that paints rainbows, a surprising number of people giving pets massages (including a superb possum), possibly our new favourite man in the world Frank Pacholski and a man who loses his hands, but finds techno.

While many of these clips are now available on YouTube (see a few of them below), the guys behind the festival found them all on VHS, either through thrift store digging, bin foraging or submissions. They’re looking for more UK videos, so get in touch with them on the site if you have anything you feel is peculiar enough.

The footage forms a brilliant and superlatively strange collection that feels like one huge YouTube labyrinth of office procrastination, carefully curated with one eye on people-pleasing and the other on weirding us the hell out. Which is just fine by us.

Above
Found Footage Festival: Hosts Joe Pickett (left) and Nick Prueher (right)
Above
Found Footage Festival: Pretty Boy Floyd

“Self-proclaimed pool hustler Pretty Boy Floyd offers tips and a whole lot of nonsense in the instructional video Secrets of Hustling Pool, found in New Orleans in 2005.”

Above
Found Footage Festival: Schwarzenegger with carrot

“A young Arnold Schwarzenegger seductively feeds a woman a carrot in the 1983 travel video for Brazil, “Carnival in Rio.”

Share Article

About the Author

Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.