Videoheaven

In today's streaming era, DVDs and Blu-rays have somehow managed to survive, but the video store seems to be gone for good. Before the VHS tape fades entirely from our collective memories, the generous and sprawling documentary Videoheaven explores the impact and cultural role of these once-sacred film havens in American society. Director Alex Ross Perry, known for his equally obsessive music doc Pavements (FFG2024) and a former employe of New York's legendary Kim's Video, draws inspiration from Videoland, the groundbreaking study by researcher and co-producer Daniel Herbert. Narrated by Maya Hawke, the film rewinds through six illuminating chapters, tracing the rise and fall of a long-overlooked piece of public life. A monumental tribute, stitched together from aisles of film clips and archival footage, Videoheaven is a paradise where high and low culture meet; a paradise missed by many.