Kim’s Video

For two decades, New York City cinephiles had access to a treasure trove of rare and esoteric films through Kim’s Video. Originally run by the enigmatic Yongman Kim out of his dry-cleaning business, his franchise eventually amassed 55,000 rental titles. In 2008, facing a changing industry, Mr. Kim offered to give away his collection provided that it stay intact and be available to Kim’s Video members. In a bid to revitalize tourism, the small Italian village of Salemi, Sicily became home to the archive. But after the initial publicity faded, so too did any sign of the collection. Enter filmmaker David Redmon, who credits Kim’s Video for his film education. With the ghosts of cinema past leading his way, Redmon embarks on a seemingly quixotic quest to track down what happened to the legendary collection and to free it from purgatory.

«One Saturday afternoon my partner David left home to rent a movie from Kim’s Video and he came back six years later with the wrong VHS! I told him to get a No Wave movie from the 1980s and he brought home a reality TV series – David Redmon continues while channeling Jean-Luc Godard – The problem of following my desire to rent a VHS is that I confused cinema with life; to me life is just part of films. Viva Kim’s!»