Film People

‘Chop & Steele’ Documentary Picked Up by Drafthouse Films, Showing in Theaters

the locally linked doc will soon be in theaters across the U.S.

Sawyer Hoff |

MEN OF STEELE.
MEN OF STEELE. Chop & Steele will be played in select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the country in April. (Submitted photos)

UW-Eau Claire alums and Found Footage Festival founders, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, recently had their documentary Chop & Steele acquired by Drafthouse Films. The film will be released at Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on April 13 in Los Angeles, with a live Q&A with the duo.

The documentary follows the the pranksters through a lawsuit from Gray Television, the parent company of Eau Claire’s WEAU 13 News. The two had appeared on the WEAU’s morning show in the guise of faux strongman duo Chop & Steele while showing off their ridiculous “workout” routine, which included stomping Easter baskets, chopping small sticks in half, and lifting jugs of gravy. Check out some of it in the film trailer here:

Chop & Steele was directed by Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer and features interviews and commentary from the likes of comedians David Cross, Bobcat Goldwaith, Reggie Watts (who compares the duo to Andy Kaufman), and Howie Mandel, Tonight Show writer Albertina Rizzo, and (of course) Prueher and Pickett themselves.

We’re excited for the world to finally see the most stressful days of our lives.

Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett

found footage festival founder and "chop & Steele"

The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last June and also was screened at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, and many more.

“We’re excited for the world to finally see the most stressful days of our lives,” Pickett and Prueher said in a statement to Deadline magazine. “Chop & Steele is an inspirational story about friendship and perseverance, and frankly it is no different than the doc that won the Oscar about the guy who climbed mountains without any rope. It’s self-inflicted misery of the highest order, and we can’t wait to hit the road with Drafthouse Films and start choppin’ some sticks.”

Starting in April, Chop & Steele will be screened as a double feature in Alamo Drafthouse Theaters along with A Life on the Farm, a documentary directed by Oscar Harding and executive produced by Pickett and Prueher that Drafthouse Films also recently acquired. The movies will only be playing in select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the country – but we can only hope for a wider release in the future!


Learn more about the duo and their documentary at volumeone.org and see showtimes at drafthouse.com.