Using a wide array of archival footage, and narration by Maya Hawke, director Alex Ross Perry takes a nostalgic look at the history of VHS’s rise in the 1980s, it’s cultural influence, and they way it transformed how we watch movies.
Check out the trailer for Videoheaven.
Over the course of my life, two of my favorite jobs have been working at video stores. First there was “Take 2 Video,” a small locally owned video store/computer repair shop and then the corporate chain “Hollywood Video.” Both were great experiences. I’d clock in, put on a movie, talk shop with the regular customers. What’s not to love?
I have so many memories of video stores. All kinds. Everywhere. The countless hours I’d spend searching the aisles looking for the perfect movie on a Friday night or dropping into a little Mom and Pop shop in a tiny town. In Austin we had so many different videos stores. Nothing I loved more than dropping into a poorly organized, overstuffed eclectic shop full of foreign films unavailable anywhere else and searching for buried treasure. Who knows what you might find.
I remember there was a Chinese grocery store in Austin that had a video section full of bootleg Jackie Chan movies on VHS. You could drop a 10 dollar deposit and never have to return it. A bit of a wink, wink, nod that it’s all yours. Brilliant.
Ahhh that good old days.
Cinematic Point Of View 
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