Episode 269: Interview with Bret Berg, Creator/VJ/“Mad Scientist” of the Museum of Home Video

With special guest Bret Berg (Theatrical Sales Director at the American Genre Film Archive and Creator/VJ at the Museum of Home Video)!

Bret Berg created the Museum of Home Video, a weekly stream comprising archival footage like commercials, TV shows, movies, and more, all edited for the quickest-hit emotional impact possible. Before he hosted two live MHV presentations at the Trylon (RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA and THE MUSEUM OF HOME VIDEO’S GUIDE TO INFOMERCIALS), Bret sat down with us to chat about the project, his work, and the state of download culture.

In this special interview episode, we discuss...

The makings of a found footage showcase
Meeting the Trylon's John Moret and Barry Kryshka a decade ago
How you find the humanity in thousands of hours of strange, torrented content
Young Sheldon
What all this must be doing to Bret’s brain

Find the Museum of Home Video’s streams at https://www.museumofhomevideo.com/

Follow the Museum of Home Video on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/museumofhomevideo/

Get tickets to RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA and THE MUSEUM OF HOME VIDEO’S GUIDE TO INFOMERCIALS
(March 15-17 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/film/the-museum-of-home-video-live-and-in-person/all/

#OtherProgramming #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Hit It and Quit It” by Funkedelic (heard in the RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA promotional video).

Timestamps

0:00 - Interview with Bret Berg, Creator/VJ/“Mad Scientist” of the Museum of Home Video

2:56 - Why people come back to the Museum of Home Video

5:23 - How Bret knows the Trylon

7:26 - What attracts Bret to film distribution

12:10 - Becoming a “mad scientist” to put on a good show

14:50 - Appointment viewing and “being people’s Tuesday night”

17:01 - RING, RING and why Bret’s showing this stuff at the Trylon

18:20 - Timely inspirations

21:02 - RING, RING in context of the Museum’s usual fare

24:18 - What it’s like to sift through lifetimes of torrented media

28:14 - Finding the uniting humanity in disparate content and the AI question

32:14 - Using contemporary content in the Museum

37:26 - Repertory cinema vs. download culture

40:45 - Joe Dante’s THE MOVIE ORGY (1968)

44:34 - What keeps Bret coming back to the Museum

46:43 - Bret’s favorite things that he’s put into the Museum of Home Video

50:35 - What is all this shit doing to Bret’s brain? (Also some Dune chat)

53:49 - Dumb Questions (SOUTHLAND TALES and other weird content Bret’s seen)