User:Slijpschijf/Neal D Retke For President!

Neal D Retke For President!

Neal D Retke For President is a 2013 Belgian short documentary film directed by Victor Van Rossem and Bram van Bree in which Victor Van Rossem travels 5000 miles from Ghent, Belgium to Austin, Texas to search for a man named Neal D Retke after receiving a friendship suggestion on Facebook. In 2014 the movie went viral after being featured on entertainment and arts website Bored Panda.

Plot
In 2012, film student Victor Van Rossem from Ghent, Belgium receives a notification on social media network Facebook saying that he could be friends with a man named Neal D Retke who lives in Austin, Texas. Living 5000 miles apart, the two have nothing in common except one mutual friend, musician/painter John Lurie, whom they are both fans of. Intrigued by the absurdity of this suggestion and by Neal’s appearance and interests, Victor decides to fly to Austin, together with friend Bram van Bree to search for Neal and find out if they really can be friends.

Upon arriving in Austin, Victor and Bram start searching for Retke by printing out one of his Facebook pictures and asking people if they know him. When this doesn’t work, they start putting up posters all over the city with a picture of Neal, asking ‘Are you, do you know or have you seen this man? Facebook said we could be friends. Please Help!’, urging people to call if they have some information.

After almost a week of searching without succes, they notice some pictures on Neal’s Facebook of him in a bookstore in downtown Austin and decide to go there. Much to their surprise, they find out the owner knows Neal and that he might attend an event at the bookstore a couple days later.

Dressed in t-shirts saying ‘Neal D Retke For President!’ they go to the event to find Neal there. Victor approaches him by saying “I came all the way from Belgium to find you […] I just want to be your friend”, upon which Retke starts laughing out loud. They share phone numbers and make plans to meet the next day.

They spend three weeks getting to know each other, becoming friends, ending with Neal accepting Victor as a friend on Facebook.