“My father says if people don’t come and see this movie, we’ll starve,” says Tate Sullivan, introducing his father’s The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Fitness and Filmmaking.

Fred G. Sullivan only made one other movie and that’s a shame. He made Cold River in 1982, which was a historical movie. This is more like a home movie, but you may not know when it’s real and when it’s f for fake. Fred directed, wrote, produced, edited and stars in this, along with his four kids, his wife Polly, his business partners, his neighbors and nearly everyone who ever knew him.

Fred wants to be a filmmaker and a star. He wants it so bad that he’ll let you watch his proctology exam. As for Polly, she grew up rich and fell for him and now they’re off in the country where he muses about movies and daydreams all day. And yet, you can understand how she felt that way.

Not all of us have our home movies released on VHS. Imagine how amazing it would be if that were true and then your VHS was rediscovered by some movie nerds, logged on Letterboxd and discussed on Discord. It would be weird and yet if Fred were still alive — he died playing basketball — I think he’d be elated.

You can watch this and so many of the films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. I’ll be posting reviews and articles over the next few days, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

You can watch this on Vimeo. It was posted by one of Fred’s sons.