The Return of Cap’n Video, The Jackass Who Predated JACKASS

Beauty Day is a new doc from Jay Cheel from The Documentary Blog, and the trailer looks fairly awesome. I’ll let Jay explain what his film, Beauty Day, is about:

As some of you may or may not know, for the past two years I’ve been working on my first feature documentary film (this is always the go to excuse for my lack of consistency in posting here at The Documentary Blog). The project is titled Beauty Day and it chronicles the life and times of Ralph Zavadil, aka Cap’n Video. His cable access show (The Cap’n Video Show) was filmed in my home town (St.Catharines, Ontario) and spawned a small but loyal cult following. His show consisted of a series of gross-out skits (snorting eggs, eating cat food) and dangerous stunts (sliding off his roof, jumping off of telephone poles) that challenged the sensibilities of its conservative community cable audience. It’s only upon reflection (and the advent of the internet) that you realize this goofy show was truly ahead of its time. Ralph was doing his wild stunts years before Tom Green or Jackass hit MTV.

After a serious on-camera accident and a controversial Easter episode, the Cap’n was pulled from the airwaves and eventually faded away into community cable obscurity. Now, fifteen years later, Ralph has decided to revisit the Cap’n in celebration of the 20th birthday of the creation of the character. With the help of his best friend Robert, he’ll attempt to get back on the air one last time and give the Cap’n the send off he deserves. In the process, we revisit all of the ups and downs in Ralph’s life and learn that those who are truly passionate about their art always manage to find an outlet and surround themselves with like minded, creative people.

The film opens in Canada this spring. It’s premiering in New York March 20th at the Museum of Modern Art!

Click here for the Beauty Day site.

Thanks to Mitch from Mondo for the link.

Beauty Day Trailer from Jay Cheel on Vimeo.