Anyone interested in physical media should surely know the tale of Kim’s Video. The East Village establishment last closed its doors in 2014, though its rental collection (which departed NYC in 2008 following the closing of its original iteration, Mondo Kim’s) recently returned to Alamo Drafthouse’s Lower Manhattan location. The story of where the 55,000 films ended up in between is far stranger than one may expect and now its gotten documentary treatment from David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. After premiering at Sundance last year, Drafthouse Films fittingly picked up the film for a release beginning April 5 and now the trailer has arrived.
John Fink said in his review, “A sweeping documentary by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, Kim’s Video follows the personal-inquiry, man-on-the-street format from their previous works Mardi Gras: Made in China and Girl Model. With Redmon largely remaining behind the scenes, asking questions while holding his camera, the film is simply left to wander where the story takes it: from the cool counterculture of the East Village before eventually turning into a heist film with a mafia connection. Haunted by the ghosts of cinema, Youngman Kim’s collection calls out to David; eventually he’s able to rescue and repatriate it back to Lower Manhattan. Its happy end is known, with a collection of over 55,000 rare VHS tapes and DVDs from the chain’s flagship Mondo Kim’s now available to rent at the Alamo Drafthouse’s lower Manhattan outpost, the Found Footage Festival’s Nick Prueher responsible for the preservation and cataloging of titles. Redmon and Sabin’s Kim’s Video shows us exactly how that deal went down.”
See the trailer below.
Kim’s Video opens on April 5.