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Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers: Hilarious new doc about fight over severed leg

MattCarey MattCarey Filmmakers find amazing characters involved in bizarre dispute

The just-concluded NextFest 15 in Los Angeles featured only a single documentary, but it was a memorable one: Finders Keepers from co-directors Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel.

Q&A post screening of "Finders Keepers" in Los Angeles
Q&A post screening of "Finders Keepers" in Los Angeles

The film revolves around ne'er-do-well John Wood, who nearly lost his life in a plane crash. Fortunately he lost just a leg, eventually getting a prosthetic one in its place. For reasons best understood by Wood, he decided to keep his actual leg, and did something of a home-embalming operation on it.

That would probably be enough of a yarn to make an entertaining documentary in itself, but the story only gets stranger from there. Wood eventually stored his severed limb in a cooker (and one does), plunked it in a storage facility and then failed to pay the rent on said storage facility.

John Wood, one of two main characters in "Finders Keepers"
John Wood, one of two main characters in "Finders Keepers"

Next thing you know the contents of the storage facility are auctioned off for non-payment and a guy named Shannon Whisnant buys the cooker, little suspecting what lay nestled inside.

I could go on, but then why spoil the fun of this extremely entertaining movie? My suggestion — see it when it hits theater. I'm not going out on a limb when I say you're bound to like it.

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MattCarey MattCarey

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