'Videoheaven' Memorializes the Video Store

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It – "Videoheaven Memorializes the Video Store"

Release Date: July 23, 2025
Host: Kate Hines (in place of Alison Stewart)
Guests: Alex Ross Perry (Writer and Director of Video Heaven) and Clyde Foley (Editor of Video Heaven)

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Introduction

In the July 23, 2025 episode of ALL OF IT on WNYC, host Kate Hines delves into the nostalgic and cultural significance of video rental stores through the lens of filmmaker Alex Ross Perry and editor Clyde Foley. The episode centers around their collaborative work, Video Heaven, a video essay that explores the history and cultural impact of video stores as depicted in films over the decades.

Guests' Background and Connection to Video Stores

Alex Ross Perry begins by recounting his personal journey with video stores.

“I got my start there as a customer... once I discovered it, I was there constantly haranguing the staff.” (01:47)

Perry moved to New York for film school at NYU and quickly became a regular at Kim's Video in the East Village. His persistent enthusiasm led Sean Williams, now an acclaimed cinematographer, to hire him on the sales floor. Working at Kim's, which boasted up to 60,000 tapes and DVDs, Perry immersed himself in a vibrant community of film enthusiasts and future filmmakers.

Clyde Foley shares his upbringing in Alaska, highlighting video stores as a lifeline to art and culture in a remote setting.

“Video stores are responsible for who I am today... responsible for making me the person I am in a very weird way.” (03:19)

Creation and Inspiration Behind Video Heaven

Perry discusses the inspiration for Video Heaven, emphasizing his love for the essay film format and drawing parallels with Tom Anderson's Los Angeles Plays Itself.

“I love the format of the essay film... I just said, Peanut Butter has now met Jelly and now we must make this movie.” (06:48)

The collaboration with Daniel Herbert, author of Video Movie Culture at the American Video Store, was pivotal. Herbert’s abandoned chapter on how video stores are portrayed in films seeded the conceptual foundation for Video Heaven. Concurrently, the restoration and re-release of Anderson's film further motivated Perry to embark on his three-hour-long exploration.

Clyde Foley became involved when Perry reached out during the summer of 2020, inviting him to edit the project.

“I've known Alex for basically the entire time that I've lived in New York... when summer of 2020 happened... I started.” (09:53)

Listener Stories and Anecdotes

Throughout the episode, Kate Hines invites listeners to share their own video store memories, enriching the discussion with personal anecdotes:

• Jay from Maplewood (10:37):
  Reveals a memorable encounter with filmmaker John Waters at Kim's Video, highlighting the store's role as a cultural hotspot.

  “That could not have been written better in a screenplay.”

• David from Westchester (14:40):
  Discusses his experience at Film Fest in New Haven, emphasizing the store's role as a community hub and its approach to curating films for diverse audiences.

  “We were more trying to find the right movie for the right people.”

• James from Plainfield (15:42):
  Shares his role at Video to Go, likening himself to a "video doctor" who prescribes movies tailored to customers' emotional needs.

  “It's like a movie. It's a movie, you know, it's a video store. Chill.”

• Pam from Nassau County (19:31):
  Offers a counterpoint by showcasing a resurgence in interest among younger generations, with her son enjoying visits to local video stores like Mr. Cheapos in COMAC.

  “There's a... resurgence in interest in... going to video stores and buying DVDs.”

Discussion on Video Stores in Modern Culture

Alex Ross Perry articulates the unique cultural footprint of video stores, particularly in their depiction in films and television over the past three decades. He contrasts this with the decline of video stores, unlike bookstores and music stores, which have managed to survive despite the rise of digital media.

“It's not a coincidence that this space was over indexed in the cultural imagination and is the one pillar of physical media retail that 99% went away.” (22:43)

Perry emphasizes that while other physical media stores have adapted or persisted, video stores have largely vanished, leaving a notable gap in cultural representation.

Clyde Foley reflects on the human element of film recommendation, contrasting it with algorithm-driven methods.

“I operate purely on the human level at this point... I want to know what people have been watching and what they're into.” (17:58)

He highlights the loss of personal connection and tailored recommendations that video store clerks provided, which algorithms often fail to replicate.

Insights and Conclusions

The episode underscores the role of video stores as more than just retail spaces; they were communal hubs that fostered connections among cinephiles, facilitated discoveries of diverse films, and played a significant role in the cultural fabric of communities. The decline of video stores signifies not just a shift in media consumption but also the loss of these vibrant social spaces.

Clyde Foley hopes that Video Heaven will evoke nostalgia and appreciation for the history of video stores.

“I want them to take away what it is like to experience the entire history of video stores... it's like watching an old friend die.” (23:59)

Alex Ross Perry concludes by inviting listeners to experience the film firsthand at a special screening, emphasizing the preservation and accessibility of Kim's Video collection.

“Video Heaven” will be screening on August 12th at Alamo Drafthouse, Lower Manhattan... available to rent for free to the public.” (24:47)

Final Thoughts

The episode beautifully captures the essence of video stores through personal stories, expert insights, and the creative vision behind Video Heaven. It serves as a heartfelt tribute to a bygone era, celebrating the communal and cultural significance of video rental stores while lamenting their disappearance in the digital age.

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Upcoming Screening Announcement:

Video Heaven will have a special screening on August 12th at Alamo Drafthouse in Lower Manhattan, featuring a Q&A session with director Alex Ross Perry.

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Stay tuned to ALL OF IT for more engaging discussions and cultural explorations.

Transcript

[Kate Hines]

You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Kate Hines in for Alison Stewart. There was a time when if you wanted to watch a movie at home, you'd head to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, or if you were a cinephile, maybe a more curated place like Kim's Video in the East Village. But now the only way you can visit a video store is through the movies. Director Alex Ross Perry got his own start in the film world by working at Kim's Video. Now he's written and directed a video essay about the history of video stores as depicted in films through the decades. It's called Video Heaven. It's narrated by Maya Hawke and edited by friend of the show, Clyde Foley. You can see a special screening of the film on August 12th at Alamo Drafthouse in lower Manhattan. Alex Ross Perry will attend the screening afterwards for a Q and A. But first he. He joins me now to discuss Video Heaven along with editor Clyde Foley. Alex, welcome to wnyc. And Clyde, welcome back.

[Clyde Foley]

Thanks for having us.

[Kate Hines]

And listeners. Hey, Alex, we want to hear from you.

[Alex Ross Perry]

How's it going?

[Kate Hines]

Good, how are you?

[Alex Ross Perry]

I am here, but I'm also not here.

[Kate Hines]

Yes, that is true. It is true that Clyde is in the studio. Alex is by Zoom. And listeners, you are here as well. We want to hear from you. What do you miss most about video rental stores? What was your favorite place to rent a film? Did you work at a video store? We want to hear your video store stories and memories. Give us a call. 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. So, Alex, you worked at Kim's Video here in the city. How did you get your start there and what did you love most about that job?

[Alex Ross Perry]

Well, I got my start there as a customer. I, when I, when I moved to New York to go to nyu, it didn't take me long to discover Kim's, which the St. Mark's location. Mondo Kim's was just steps away from NYU and once I discovered it, I was there constantly haranguing the, the, the staff. Do you ever need anybody? Do you ever need anybody? Do you have any openings coming soon? Sometime later, maybe a year or so later. According to Sean Williams, who now acclaimed cinematographer and filmmaker, he felt bad for me and he just wanted me to stop asking. So he got me, got me a job, but not on his floor. He got me a job on the sales floor. If people remember Kim's, you walk in. First floor was music sales. Middle floor was movie sales DVDs to buy and for a while vinyl to buy. But then we eventually got that down to the music floor, which of course should have always been. And then the third floor was the rental, the collection that contained at its peak close to 50, 60,000 tapes and DVDs. And by January 2005, I was working there five days a week.

[Kate Hines]

Wow. Clyde, what was your experience with video stores growing up?

[Clyde Foley]

I. What's the best way to describe it? I mean, I grew up in Alaska, I grew up in the middle of nowhere. It's not a whole lot to do. And it was really, it was like my lifeline to, I don't know, art, the world. It's also, I don't know, the video stores are responsible for who I am today. I mean like down to when I was 4 years old and my dad took me to the video store just being like, there's a movie I really want to show you because you're going to love it. And it was RoboCop. That is a hard R. It's good parenting. I know, it's really something. But it's responsible for making me the person I am in a very weird way that maybe I wouldn't recommend, but that's the way it is.

[Kate Hines]

Wow. Alex, how did working Kim's video help you discover your voice as a filmmaker?

[Alex Ross Perry]

Well, I had always wanted to make movies. Of course, in this telling, I'm at NYU for film school when I discover Kim's. So that was a dream. Pre video store employee, but really in high school just having a cable access television station in my high school's basement which was broadcast throughout the Philadelphia area, the sort of Radner Township cable access. And it's a, it's a very short line between the community that was down in the studio down there in the channel 16 basement and then always searching for another version of that community where everybody school would end 2:30 or 2:45 and we would go down there and just hang out until 6 o' clock and shoot movies on videotape and edit VCR to vcr. And then some of these people graduated and went to film school and I wanted to do that. So then I did that. And then it was not at film school that I found a version of that community. I couldn't find a version of that feeling at nyu. It was too competitive and I didn't relate to enough people. And I found that community at Kim's where it was just a slightly grown up version of being 14, 15 years old and hanging out in the studio and Slowly but surely, as with the TV studio, people started to leave Kim's. And they started. Then they were becoming filmmakers. As I said, Sean Williams left Kim's and then he was working as an archivist with legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Meisels. And then Sean's shooting and then he's making a film like Ronald Bronstein's Frownland. And now I'm realizing the pipeline from the studio to film school, from Kim's to filmmaking, was very real. And then Robert Greene, who's edited many movies of mine, he was working at Kim's as well. And him and Sean worked together. And that community that I had looked for since I was 14 years old in the basement of my high school making local cable access videotapes was found.

[Kate Hines]

Again at the video store Video Heaven. I want to talk about the film now. It's more of a video essay than a traditional documentary. There are no talking heads. It's Mayahawk narrating scenes from films of video stores. Alex, what made you want to tell the story this way?

[Alex Ross Perry]

Well, I love the format of the essay film. I say having seen probably, you know, depends how you define it. Obviously you could call Adam Curtis films essay films, but the inspiration. Well, there's two. And they both happened in 2014. Daniel Herbert wrote a book called Video Movie Culture at the American Video Store that I loved. And it's an academic history. I believe it's Dan's thesis for his media studies degree about video stores as a retail space in American culture. It's a terrific book. Very readable for something that is written to be academic, written as a thesis, it's statistically compelling. The story it tells is wonderful, very personal. And I wrote him a letter and said, if there's ever anything to collaborate with this, I'm a video clerk myself, filmmaker. Let's figure something out. And he wrote back with a deleted chapter detailing video stores on screen, which he had attempted to write ed at his editor's behest, had omitted before even finishing it because his editor said, you spend half the chapter describing what's happening on screen. This needs to be not describing. You want to get to the point where you're talking about the themes and the analysis of what occurs in the scene of Nicole Halof Centers walking and talking of Seinfeld, of Kevin Smith's Clerks, of Michael Almerada's Hamlet.

[Kate Hines]

Yellow jackets.

[Alex Ross Perry]

No, not even. I mean, yellow jackets. That clip came out later. That clip is from two years ago. This chapter Dan wrote was abandoned in 2014 when he published his book. So he had a handful of key texts and I said, let's look at those. And we just kind of planted that seed of that canceled chapter in the ground. And then around the same time, the best essay film of all, Tom Anderson's Los Angeles plays itself 2003 film was restored and re released for a 10th anniversary with new HD clips and some new material of movies that were not, maybe hadn't been made yet when he made the previous version. And then it was put on the Blu ray. And I had already liked the film as a sort of illegal object, but now I got to see it in the theater and own it. And reading Dan's chapter and watching Los Angeles Plays itself three hour long essay film about the city of Los Angeles told through movie clips. I just said, well, Peanut Butter has now met Jelly and now we must make this movie.

[Kate Hines]

I want to get to listeners. Hang in there. I'm going to get to your calls in just a second. But I want to ask you, Clyde, how did you get involved with the film?

[Clyde Foley]

I've known Alex for basically the entire time that I've lived in New York. We've probably seen hundreds of movies together. And he'd recommended Dan's book to me in 2013 when it came out. And I read it and I liked it a lot. And then when summer of 2020 happened and we were all just trapped in our apartments, Alex texted me and said, hey, I've got this project I'm working on. Do you want to edit it? And that's when I started.

[Kate Hines]

That's very cool, listeners. We can take your calls. 212-433-9692. And let's start things off with Jay from Maplewood. Hi, Jay, you're on all of it.

[Jay]

Hi. Hey there. Happy to be here today. I have just a cute little anecdote. I live in Maplewood now, but like most people who live in New Jersey, I was a New York expat. And around, I don't know, 2099, I was in Manhattan with my girlfriend at the time and we were going into a Kim's video and John Waters was walking out of Kim's video as we were walking. And I say to my girlfriend, I'm like, dude, that's, that's John Waters. No, it's not. I'm like, no, it is. No, it's not. I literally walk in, I take, I don't know, maybe like five steps into the store, literally pick up a VHS clamshell, turn it over, there's a picture of him on the back of the site is that not the man that just walked by us and he had to admit defeat? It was a great little victory for me. But more than that, that could not have been written better in a screenplay. So that was a great little New York moment.

[Kate Hines]

That's awesome.

[Alex Ross Perry]

Well, see, that speaks to something very important that this story takes place at Kim's. The democratic nature of a well situated store, certainly in New York or Los Angeles. And we talk about this in the narration of the film where we sort of call out this. This little gag in Nancy Meyer's the Holiday where Dustin Hoffman is seen renting movies in Blockbuster is this idea that movies are consumed by people who make movies. Of course, people who just want to watch a video and have a nice Friday night, that's who's renting movies. But the idea that you would see a musician or an artist or a filmmaker was such a huge part of working at Kim's in the East Village. And the amount of people I saw is the only list. More fascinating is the people who other people who worked there saw. You know, David Bowie, a regular over at the Bleecker street underground, Kim's not far from his SoHo apartment, and Lou Reed, also cited in Kim's. And we love these stories because it just proves that to access a movie is something that anybody can do in the video store. John Waters, some bozo who just walks in and asks for some pedestrian Hollywood film that we would never carry.

[Kate Hines]

And everyone in between and everyone judges them. And that's like a piece of the documentary that I found so fascinating was how the clerks act often act or depict it as acting as the arbiters of good film taste and look down upon patrons who come in are like, I want to watch, you know, insert random big budget studio film here, which was.

[Alex Ross Perry]

That's certainly part of it. And Kim's customers, some of whom are hopefully listening, they certainly know that what we had, what we offered people that sort of set us apart was this. This kind of one of a kind collection that customers would love. And what we could give people was access to things that are otherwise not viewable. And that made our store very special in a very real way. And that type of access is such a huge part of the video store experience and is something that, yes, elements of film consumption have migrated to revival houses and to the Internet. But that kind of access of having, as Dan points out in his book, you walk into Kim's, there is before you 50,000 different futures for your evening.

[Kate Hines]

And that's very, very specific and a Little daunting listeners. We are speaking with Alex Ross Perry, the writer and director of Video Heaven, and Clyde Foley, the Ed. And we are taking your calls. Let's hear now from David in Westchester. Hi, David. You're on all of it.

[David]

Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I worked in an independently owned video store called Film Fest in New Haven, Connecticut, back in 95. And it was a fantastic sort of locus of community. I'd never worked in Utah or since, but you definitely got to see all sorts of folks that you felt like you saw a real cross section of the community coming through there. And to the earlier point of being arbiters of taste, I think that definitely exists. But the way it worked there was. We were more trying to find the right movie for the right people.

[Kate Hines]

Yeah, that's a really.

[David]

Somebody like Harold and Maugham. We didn't think there was.

[Kate Hines]

Oh, I think we're losing you, David. Thanks for calling in. I have another call that I want to line up with that because it kind of piggybacks on David's point. James in Plainfield. Hi, James.

[David]

Hi.

[James]

Am I live?

[Kate Hines]

You are live. Tell us your story.

[James]

I worked at a video store on 8th street called Video to Go, and we had to answer the phone constantly. Video To Go, can I help you? We got it down to four syllables. Viggo, Kelp you.

[Kate Hines]

And it's brilliant.

[James]

I thought that this was going to be a really laid back kind of job, but I found myself literally prescribing.

[Kate Hines]

Movies to people like a doctor.

[James]

Literally. Yeah. And I would be like, you know, I thought, you know, it's like a movie. It's a movie, you know, it's a video store. Chill. But people would have to have the latest video and, you know, they would come in and look for suggestions. And I felt like a video doctor. I'd be like, I want a video that, you know, I'm going to cry. And I'm like, well, I'd ask, what did you cry at before? And I would prescribe, you know, a video. It felt really great.

[Kate Hines]

Was there, what was there a specific interaction you remember as being really rewarding or really challenging?

[James]

Yeah. I met some. Some, like, celebrities, you know, like major, major lawyers and major, like, celebrity types. And it was really interesting to see what they watched, you know.

[Kate Hines]

Yeah.

[James]

And. And it didn't always match up to my expectations, you know. Yeah, that's because we did have an adult section.

[Kate Hines]

Just saying, you know, we'll get to that. In this conversation. One of our producers just mentioned to me that, you know, Store employees were the recommendation engine before the algorithms took over. Which is really fascinating when you think about it. Like, Clyde, you work for the Criterion Channel now. How do you feel about modern film recommendation methodology? Rotten Tomatoes and like, you know, when it used to be more of a human connection, like there are pros and cons to everything, but now you can go down a rabbit hole on Reddit, which is great, but it also removes the human element.

[Clyde Foley]

I mean, I feel like I'm almost entirely disconnected from like most of these modern modes of recommendation. I operate purely on the human level at this point, just talking to people, my very opinionated friends. And I don't know, to me it's all about finding the surprises and the idiosyncratic. And I don't know with that regard. The algorithms, they do nothing for me. I want to know what people have been watching and what they're into.

[Kate Hines]

How do you start that conversation? Do you talk to strangers?

[Clyde Foley]

Oh, I don't think I've ever spoken to a stranger in my life. No, It's, I think like 95% of the conversations I have with our friends, my friends, are about movies. The other 5% is probably music. And we're, I feel like we're just constantly having, having arguments about movies or recommending stuff.

[Kate Hines]

We got a couple of texts. The clerks are tastemakers in junior high. In the late 90s and early aughts, my local video store in Brooklyn Heights was the most incredible place where pretentious kids in their early twenties could teach me how to be cool. And then someone says, going to the video store was a vital part of my childhood in the early 2000s. It's bittersweet that I might have been the last generation to have grown up with them. That's from Izzy in Stamford. And now I just want to bring up Pam from Nassau county into the conversation because I think she has a counterpoint. Hi, Pam, you're on all of it.

[Pam]

Hi. Thank you. I definitely have a counterpoint. I, as well as everyone, grew up going to video stores. I had a video store in a local small town in Western Pennsylvania where I grew up and have such happy memories. But I have a 14 year old son and his favorite place to go here on long island is Mr. Cheapos in COMAC, which has videos and records. But we also were just in la and I asked what he wanted to do and tops on his list was to go to video stores. So we were at, I think it was Atomic Records and then video store called Be Kind, which miraculously were like, right down the street from each other. So I think there's a. At least in our family, a resurgence in interest in, you know, going to video stores and buying DVDs, and, you know, it's just thrilled to see the crowds in the stores and happy that my son, you know, loves movies as much as I did. So can't wait to see the documentary.

[Kate Hines]

Thanks.

[Alex Ross Perry]

This is very good and very crucial because you mention Los Angeles has quite a few functioning video stores, and this is largely somewhat new. They're all kind of within the last five years, or in the case of video, it's reopened in the last five years. And that's very special. Of course, we sort of suggest in the film the video stores are a thing of the past, and in many places they are now. That doesn't mean that no city has one. There are great ones kind of all over, you know, Seattle, Scarecrow, Portland, Movie Madness. Not only be kind, as you reference in la, but cinephile, whammy, video, tech, videos. As I said, LA is kind of a hub for them. But what our movie hopes to do is not say, these are dinosaurs, they're extinct, but to say that they. For roughly 30 years in films or television shows, it was commonplace to show characters walking into a video store. And this moment of comedy or drama required no further explanation. A contemporary show set in Los Angeles, a sitcom, if characters just walked in to Whammy and started browsing VHS tapes to buy, I think viewers of the show would say, what the. What the heck is going on in this scene? What are they doing? Why is this a thing? What is this store? How come no one is saying, this is strange. This store only sells videos. Whereas for 30 years, that would just be a scene that passed without any commentary on shows that were watched by 40 million people. And that is kind of what the movie is about, which is not to say these things went away. It's to say, you know, I live in a small, small town upstate. Two blocks from my house is a music store, and it's next to an independent bookstore. My daughter goes to school. One town over on Main street, right, there is a music store and an independent bookstore. These hubs of retail survived, and they're everywhere. No one bats an eye. Bookstores, music, you can get them anywhere you want. You can get vinyl at Target, but video was decimated. But music got hit by the Internet just as hard, if not harder. And yet there's music stores everywhere. What we try to sort of solve in Video Heaven is, why video? Why are there 150 clips that we can put together of romantic, humorous, stressful, frustrating, embarrassing, violent, confrontational scenes. And video stores. There are not 150 scenes of such a thing happening in a bookstore. Bookstores have existed far longer and they still exist. Why was that not dramatized in the same way or at the same consistency as video stores? And my whole conclusion is, well, it's not a coincidence that this, this space was over indexed in the cultural imagination and is the one pillar of physical media retail that 99% went away.

[Kate Hines]

Yeah. We just have a little less than a minute yet. I barely got to like 80% of what I wanted to talk about with you because this conversation has been so great. But Clyde, what do you want people to talk about when they see this film? What do you want them to take away?

[Clyde Foley]

I want them to take away what it is like to experience the entire history of video stores. 50 years. From the birth in the late 70s, early 80s to the unfortunate death in recent years. I don't know. I think of watching this movie as like. It's like watching an old friend die. And to me it is. It's. I think that the movie's funny, but it's also, I don't know, it's grim, it's sad, it's. I don't know, I want them to feel something because I miss video stores. I think a lot of people listening miss video stores. And I'd say check it out and spend three hours reliving those memories.

[Alex Ross Perry]

Yeah, it's a long film and we hope that it's for people who would like to spend three hours in a video store either at its screenings. Coming up at Alamo downtown, where I should say the collection of Kim's video has been re archived by Sean and myself and is available to rent for free to the public. We've got about 15,000 tapes and DVDs there, many of which we can promise are not available on streaming or Blu Ray or anything.

[Kate Hines]

And we'll have to leave it there. Sorry to cut you off. My guests have been writer and director Alex Ross Perry and editor Clyde Foley. Their film Video Heaven will be screening on August 12th at Alamo Drafthouse, Lower Manhattan. We will have more of it, more all of it on the way. Coming up after the latest news headlines. Stay with us.

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