On the Calendar

This month is filled with unique movie-watching opportunities, starting April 2 at Mud and Water when the nationally-acclaimed touring Found Footage Festival arrives to celebrate its 10th anniversary with a new batch of old-school and hilarious videotapes to show and riff on with a live audience.

Curated by Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, both contributing writers to The Onion, the seeds of the popular festival were planted in 1991 when the two friends began collecting vintage videotapes.

Their first was a corporate training video called Inside and Outside Custodial Duties that Prueher came across while working at a Wisconsin McDonalds in his teens.

“It was so quirky and ridiculous that I stole it–took it home in my backpack,” Prueher says. “Eventually, Joe and I started collecting more of these until what we once showed to friends for fun in our living room became the Lost and Found Fest.”

Now the duo receives submissions from fans of their series. Prueher says they have thousands of VHS tapes he has yet to watch.

“We’re starting to get DVDs now too, and though the production values improve, the bad ideas remain. And that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”foundfootagefest.com

With his powerful new drama Her, writer-director Spike Jonze just nabbed an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and the term “original” in that designation cannot be emphasized enough.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as a lonely letter-writer who meets Samantha. The only problem is Samantha, voiced in breathy tones by Scarlett Johansson, is his new hyper intelligent computer operating system.

Manship Threatre is offering three chances to see Her this month, with “Dinner and a Movie” on consecutive Fridays: April 11 (Capital City Grill), 18 (Tsunami) and 25 (Stroubes).

Reservations can be made by calling 225-389-7264. manshiptheatre.com