Hands on a Hard Body
Kottke’s made two (1,2,) different posts about this documentary of a contest in a small Texas town.
The yearly competition pits twenty-four contestants against each other to see who can keep their hand on a pickup truck for the longest amount of time. Whoever endures the longest without leaning on the truck or squatting wins the truck. Five minute breaks are issued every hour and fifteen minute breaks every six hours.
It seems like a pretty boring subject for a documentary but the filmmakers do an incredible job putting it together, and it turns into a great look the limits of human endurance. They’re helped out by a great cross section of people in the competition and in particular one fellow named Benny who won the contest before and offers really acute insights into the experience, especially as the contestants enter their third and fourth day without sleep.
The entire film is available on Google Video, and I can’t reccomend it enough.