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Trailer For VIDEOHEAVEN Doc, Which is a Tribute To Video Stores of the Past — GeekTyrant
Trailer For VIDEOHEAVEN Doc, Which is a Tribute To Video Stores of the Past — GeekTyrant

Geek Tyrant

time06-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Geek Tyrant

Trailer For VIDEOHEAVEN Doc, Which is a Tribute To Video Stores of the Past — GeekTyrant

Here's a trailer for a upcopming documentary film titled Videoheaven , which is a tribute to the video stores of the past that many of us grew up with. I have so many fond memories of spending time in video stores as a kid with my freinds looking for movie to watch for entertianment. It's also how we educated ourselves in filmmaking 'For some thirty years, from the 1980s until their decline in the 2010s, video shops were crucial arenas for film culture – and both highbrow and lowbrow American cinema has documented their rise, fall and changing meanings. 'Alex Ross Perry's Videoheaven, a labour of love ten years in the making, retraces this history using solely appropriated footage from a vast array of films, ranging from huge Hollywood productions to non-professional no-budget affairs, sold solely at their neighbourhood video shop. 'Inspired by Daniel Herbert's book "Videoland: Movie Culture at the American Video Store", Perry renders the video shops a mirror for a wider social history of various developments in media, community structures and the flow of capital – how, for example, the early video shops with their bespoke, responsive curation, were pushed aside by chains with commercial, centralised selections, and how a culture of secret knowledge once generously shared was turned into an institution for the manufacturing of consensus...' The movie was directed by Alex Ross Perry and it was narrated by Maya Hawke. The doc is also a full-on 3 hour film! If you grew up in the day of video store, this is sure to take on on nostalgic trip back in time. Videoheaven opens in select theaters starting July 2nd, 2025.

‘Videoheaven' Review: Rewinding the Tape
‘Videoheaven' Review: Rewinding the Tape

New York Times

time02-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • New York Times

‘Videoheaven' Review: Rewinding the Tape

Borrowing the format of 'Los Angeles Plays Itself' (2004), Thom Andersen's great, sprawling survey of how movies have depicted Los Angeles, Alex Ross Perry's archival documentary 'Videoheaven' takes on a topic that is considerably more niche: how movies have depicted video stores. The subject is more capacious than it might sound. For one thing, it is intriguingly time-bound. Video stores couldn't have appeared in movies until the late 1970s, says Maya Hawke, who narrates, in a nod to her role as a video store employee on 'Stranger Things.' Eventually, such stores will only be portrayed by people who never experienced them firsthand, she says, 'like westerns or the World War II film.' Drawing on Daniel Herbert's book 'Videoland,' Perry traces how films and TV went from showing home viewing as exotic or dangerous ('Videodrome,' 'Body Double') to seeing it as routine. Onscreen, video stores became sites for romantic interaction or potential embarrassment. Pondering a television trope in which a person seeking to rent a pornographic movie is, without fail, shamed, 'Videoheaven' describes 'an extremely 1990s paradox wherein adults are interested in sexuality but unwilling to admit it.' The observations range from the incisive to the grandiose, and at nearly three hours, 'Videoheaven' could stand a tighter edit. Early on, a line of voice-over is sloppily repeated verbatim. And Perry only needs so many clips of obnoxious clerks, even if it's funny to see David Spade repeatedly typecast in that role. But the material will be irresistible to any cinephile who has spent countless hours in these spaces, and a critic would do well to admit susceptibility. I've met Perry a few times over the years, and the first time, he thought I looked familiar — I assume because I had frequented the Kim's Video where he worked. VideoheavenNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 53 minutes. In theaters.

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