Their throwaway videos are real keepers

Thrift stores, basements, and Dumpsters wouldn't occur to most people as the best places to find really good films. Unless we're talking about good as in so bad they're good. But ever since he stumbled upon a McDonald's training video titled ''Inside and Outside Custodial Duties," Nick Prueher has been hunting for hilarious, cringe-inducing films that were mostly never meant to be seen publicly.

''It's the excitement of finding a new gem that keeps me interested and keeps us searching through hundreds of discarded tapes," Prueher says by phone from his Queens apartment, where the videos have taken over two bedrooms. ''We've amassed quite a collection of ridiculous videos, and we're happy to do it."

Prueher, Joe Pickett, and Geoff Haas are curators of the Found Footage Festival, which makes a stop at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Saturday. The midnight screening features clips and commentary on these bizarre treasures. The event is part of the theater's Found Footage Weekend, which kicks off Friday at midnight with the Strange Findings video show. DJ RNDM supplies the soundtrack for selections by Peter Ledebur and Robotkid.

Of hundreds of found-footage tapes, Prueher's favorite is a travel video for Brazil featuring a young, frisky, and pre-gubernatorial Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Prueher thinks that a local entry from the Massachusetts Humane Society called ''Cat-ertainment" will also be a hit.

''It pretends to be a news show, but the anchors have kitties on their desk. It closes with a montage of kittens playing, set to an original song that gets stuck in your head whether you want it to or not," he says. ''The people of Massachusetts should be proud."

THE DUDE ABIDES: Before the Coolidge celebrates classically bad found footage, the theater brings back a cult classic. ''The Big Lebowski" party on Tuesday night pays tribute to Joel and Ethan Coen's oddball epic about mistaken identity, nihilist thugs, and bowling. Jeff Bridges is the eternally laid-back, White Russian-loving Jeff ''The Dude" Lebowski, who's harassed by goons chasing a millionaire of the same name. The Dude gets entangled in a kidnapping plot involving the millionaire's wife and enlists his buddies Walter and Donny (hilariously played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, respectively) to help him sort it all out.

Before the 7:30 p.m. screening, the theater hosts a preshow bowling match and trivia contest. Be sure to wear your best bowling shirt for a chance to win some Lebowski-esque prizes.

MALLE AND MOREAU: It's been said that ''The Big Lebowski" borrows elements of film noir, but Kendall Square Cinema screens the real thing during a one-week engagement of Louis Malle's first feature, ''Elevator to the Gallows." Malle cast Jeanne Moreau in a star-making role as a woman who plots with her lover to murder her husband. Malle's film, which features a score by Miles Davis, set off the first ripple of the French New Wave. Starting Friday, the Kendall screens a new 35mm print of ''Elevator" with a new translation and subtitles. Call 617-499-1996 or go to www.landmarktheatres.com.

ACQUIRED TASTE: The titles of George Kuchar's films may have a familiar ring to them -- ''East by Southwest," ''Hush, Hush, Sweet Harlot" -- but you've probably never seen anything like them. The underground director has described his ''Return to the House of Pain" this way: ''It documents my walking through the turf and sludge of the Big Apple and many worm holes. . . . I chomp my way back west and gnaw on all that sinks stomachward and beyond in vertiginous aching."

Kuchar began shooting 8mm films at age 12 with his twin brother, Mike, and will discuss his early work at Northeast Historic Film's summer symposium in Bucksport, Maine, this weekend. He'll be joined by archivist Andrew Lampert of New York's Anthology Film Archives.

Amateur fiction film is the theme of the three-day symposium, which starts Thursday. The lineup includes ''The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles With the West," considered one of the first independent features produced in the United States. Preservationist Snowden Becker will discuss efforts to restore the film and Andrea McCarty, of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program, will present ''Mission: Alpha Centauri -- The Making of a Smalltown Sci-Fi Classic." For more information, call 207-469-0924.

SHORT TAKES: The Institute of Contemporary Art's Reel Rush film series continues Friday with Alexander Sokurov's drama ''Father and Son," which won the 2003 Fipresci prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The series concludes Aug. 19 with Maria Novaro's ''Danzon." Reel Rush is presented in conjunction with an exhibit titled ''Getting Emotional," which runs through Sept. 5. Call 617-266-5152 or go to www.icaboston.org.

Rhonda Stewart can be reached at rstewart@globe.com.