I am sitting in our digital storytelling masterclass, where Daniel is showing us some of the work of the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players – this is a bona fide family of three who scavenge boxes of slides from garage sales, make up wacky suburban post-folk punk 3 chord rock songs to go with them, and turn them into even wackier movies.

From Maximum Ink:

…a couple of years ago in Seattle…Tina found and bought some old slide photos at a yard sale. The box was marked “Mountain Trip to Japan 1959 and that was what was on the film, someone’s color slide photos of a trip to Japan in 1959. Jason, who was a mild mannered struggling singer/songwriter in a city filled with aggressive and thriving singer/songwriters, put his talent to work and wrote songs around the slideshow and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were born.

Their songwriting technique has not failed them yet. “We found these slides with eggs on them, so we thought well obviously this song is going to be called “Eggs,” said Jason.

Daniel showed us “eggs”. It was v. good.

I like the idea of cultural “junk” being repurposed in this less-than earnest way. There is plenty of joyful parody going on, but without taking the piss out of the anonymous authors of the “found” photographs.