TCM Classic Film Festival And The Found Footage Festival Holding Special At-Home Editions
Film festivals have long been a place where movie lovers can congregate and share their love of cinema together, often in a ritzy theater where a movie star may make an appearance. But the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has all but halted the film festival season, and many have been forced to postpone or cancel completely to curb the spread of the virus. But that doesn't mean we can't celebrate cinema from the comfort of our couches.
The TCM Classic Film Festival and The Found Footage Festival are holding special at-home editions of their festivals for fans of classic films and bizarre VHS discoveries, respectively. Here's how you can participate in these film festival at home editions.
TCM Classic Film Festival
The annual TCM Classic Film Festival is usually held in the heart of Hollywood, but now TCM and host Ben Mankiewicz are bringing Hollywood to you. The TCM Classic Film Festival: Special Home Edition is an on-air celebration of the TCM classic movies and "moments from the past decade that fans can enjoy from the comfort of their homes."
The festival's four-day schedule will include showings of its slate of classic movies like A Star is Born, Metropolis, The Seventh Seal, A Hard Day's Night, North By Northwest, Some Like It Hot, Network, Casablanca, and more, as well as footage from past festivals, interviews with special guests, and events to follow on-air and online.
Oddly, this at-home edition feels fitting for the TCM Classic Film Festival — we all have memories of turning TCM on late at night and "discovering" some classic movie it was airing. This festival feels like it was made for an on-air version, and feels like a return to the network's roots.
The special at-home edition of the festival begins April 16 at 8:00 P.M. continuing until April 19 and airs on TCM. See the full schedule for the TCM Classic Film Festival here.
The Found Footage Festival
On the slightly kookier side of things, The Found Footage Festival will be doing its own at-home edition — but exclusively online. Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, who have long shared their eclectic collection of the strangest things ever put on VHS — ranging from home videos, exercise tapes, instructional videos, to bad pornos — are still holding their Found Footage Festival, streaming it for free on the Found Footage Festival website through March 31.
The duo will also be livestreaming and delivering bonus content for their Patreon supporters.
"If, like us, you're stuck inside and bored of Netflix already, we've got you covered. Joe and I are back from our UK tour and have self-quarantined ourselves in our office of 11,000 tapes with nothing but time to watch them with you," they wrote in an email to subscribers (via AV Club). "Want a full hour of Joe's Tedium Corner? Joe is insisting on it. Want a live camera on Nick's dog Marty for an hour? It's going to happen."
It feels a little threatening, only because it is. To follow up on that threat, Pickett and Prueher shared an inexplicable compilation of Magical Sponge lady, which is one of the highlights of their collection.