Joe Pickett - VHS: Absurd, Odd, and Ridiculous Relics from the Videotape Era

The cover art on each box peddled glimpses of thrilling, forbidden worlds still beyond my grasp. Every day, neck aching as I stared up at the shelves, my simple, earnest longing performed a strange bit of alchemy, turning even the crummiest and most forgettable flicks into gold. Now, twenty-five years later, I cant leave a garage sale or thrift store without a stack of VHS tapes under my arm. Its as though Im making up for all those years of paucity. I love the reliable heft of each cassette tape, and have become an expert at spotting jewels in the rougha favorite documentary or cult classic or 80s gem in a Titanic- and Jerry Maguire-filled sea. Friends in my town know that I operate a unique sort of traveling VHS infirmarywhenever they get sick, I deliver to their door five hand-picked movies, plus a VCR, remote, and RCA cables to boot.

Nothing cures the flu like Trading Places, Pelle The Conqueror, The Third Man, Hands On A Hard Body, and American Movie. While Ive spent the 2000s harvesting classics from Goodwills and St. Vincent de Pauls, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher of the Found Footage Festival have been panning for a different sort of gold. Any average film aficionado can pull The Thin Blue Line out of a haystack, but it takes a particular brand of genius to pay attention to the VHS tapes that no one else might think to give a second glance: instructional videos, motivational seminars, exercise tapes, work-safety demonstrations, perversely low-budget horror and sci-fi flicks, public access TV shows, home videos, and even blank, mystery tapes which reveal themselves only once the VCR heads start spinning. By sharing juicy morsels from these tapes in their Found Footage show, Joe and Nick have opened a trenchant window on the moving, rousing, bizarre, and utterly ridiculous nature of human endeavor. Here, in this book, the Found Footage guys have brought out the most sacred and sacrilegious prizes of their VHS treasure chest.

Its a gripping, mind-bending collection. Many of the tapes recall a brighter, not-so-distant past, when people werent working three jobs and had a desire to better themselves in their spare time by mastering the yo-yo or doing aerobics with newborn babies in tow. Others stand as evidence to some of the awfullest-looking movies ever filmed. I think its important to keep in mind, though, that every one of these tapes, no matter how weird or terrible or fucking insane, was the result of someones real passion, an attempt to fulfill a dream. Knowing that someone poured their heart and soul into producing these videotapes may complicate the enjoyment we feel at their existence, but it shouldnt dampen our appreciation, it should only deepen it. Because as wildly funny as these VHS tapes may be to us, theyre no joke.

Almost unbelievably, theyre all one-thousand-percent genuine. Someone devoted their lives to making these tapes, and others consumed them. That, to me, is the real magic here, and what makes this incredible book so rich. Enjoy!