In 1985, a screenwriter named Hank Paper opened a very different sort of video store in Hamden, CT, only a few miles from the Yale University campus in New Haven.  Just 350 square feet, Paper’s store had an inventory of only 500 movies.  But what made it stand out from all the other video stores in the area was that Paper could personally recommend every one of those titles.  Hank was passionate about movies, and he felt any good video store collection should be curated, just as the store should be staffed with movie fanatics.

Additional stores opened, Blockbuster came and went, as did RedBox, and this new mail-only DVD service called Netflix.  But by 2005 video stores were quickly closing.  Netflix morphed into something completely different, and streaming was born.  The number of streaming services proliferated.  And it looked as if video stores really would soon be little more than a memory.

Yet somehow, Best Video persisted.  They moved three times into bigger and bigger locations.  They put a coffee shop into a corner of their store to help with the bills, held regular film screenings, author readings, and even concerts.  And over the 40-years since Hank Paper first opened the doors, they grew their film collection to 46,000 titles.  Still very much curated and staffed by film fanatics.

As we filmed Best Video, the movie, this history and celebration of the very last video store in Connecticut, it become more than just Paper’s story.  It morphed into a tale of film preservation and a true love of physical media.  The need to hold a film in your hand, as we all did in the 80s and 90s, has returned from hibernation.  And the desire to own your favorite films, to make sure they will always be available to watch, is deeper now than ever.

Best Video, the movie is the story of the last surviving video stores in this country, institutions such as Scarecrow Video in Seattle, Vidiots and Videotheque both in LA, Movie Madness in Portland, Video Horizons in the very small town of Astoria, Oregon, Beyond Video in Baltimore, Videodrome in Atlanta, VisArt in Charlotte, WeLuvVideo in Austin, VideoDrome in Atlanta, and of course Best Video in Hamden, CT.  These once small video stores that began and evolved because of film passion outlived the much wealthier competition, and are still going strong decades later.

They are preserving the history of film, all now with collections of tens of thousand of titles.  Scarecrow, with 150,000 titles, is the world’s largest film archive, yes, archive, on the planet.  Together with companies like Criterion, Kino, and Vinegar Syndrome, who continually release both classic, not-so-classic, and long-lost films on bluray, and Lunchmeat Video which is leading the VHS resurgence, the history of film, which seems an afterthought on streaming services, will not only survive, but thrive.

Streaming has been sold to us as easy, convenient, and with every title that we could possibly want to watch at our fingertips, but Best Video in Hamden alone, with its 46,000 DVDs, has more titles that Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu COMBINED!  Think about that.  The streaming services promise us the world, but are they really delivering?  And how often do the films we love and want to watch for a second or third time seemingly disappear overnight?  Will we ever be able to watch them again?  Who exactly is preserving the films that aren’t currently streaming and never will be?  The answer is pretty simple at this point in time: all those video stores and physical media companies mentioned above.  They are making sure that the old film you loved as a child, your grandmother’s favorite black and white movie, the indie film made on maxed-out credit cards, that niche documentary, and yes, even the modern day blockbusters will live on, and be available for all to watch and enjoy.

Best Video, the movie is the story of these modern day film heroes.  People who love film, preserve film, live film.  It’s the story of the future of film told by people very much embracing its past.

Directed by Gorman Bechard

Written by Gorman Bechard & Faith Marek

Produced by Gorman Bechard, Kaity Bolding & Faith Marek

Edited by Faith Marek

Music by Dean Falcone

Please visit our Kickstarter campaign