What began as the history and celebration of the very last video store in Connecticut has become a tale of film preservation and the love of physical media.  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 stores are preserving the history of film, all with collections of tens of thousand of titles.  Scarecrow, with 150,000 titles, is the world’s largest film archive, because that’s what they really are, 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.  Stores whose demise has been greatly exaggerated.  Run by 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 Gorman Bechard & Faith Marek

Music by Dean Falcone

Please visit our Kickstarter campaign