As some of you may or may not know, for the past two years I’ve been working on my first feature documentary film. After two years of resisting the urge to post footage of the film online, I can FINALLY show some of this stuff to our Film Junk readers! 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.

I cut this trailer together to give you all an idea of what the film is and hopefully convince a bunch of you to help support us along the way. If you like what you see and happen to live in the New York City area, you’re in luck! Beauty Day will have its world premiere on Sunday, March 20th at the Museum of Modern Art as part of their Canadian Front screening series. Here are the details:

Sunday, March 20, 2011, 5:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1

Monday, March 21, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building

For our Canadian readers, Beauty Day will have a limited theatrical release this spring via Ron Mann’s filmswelike and will broadcast on The Movie Network and Movie Central later this year, so stay tuned for more details on that. You can also visit the Beauty Day website for more news and info on more screenings to come. Until then, check out the trailer above and be sure to spread the magic of Cap’n Video around the inter-webs!