Ah I came out of this screening exclaiming it was one of the best things I’d ever seen. Now I’ve had time to calm down, I would say that it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen.
I can only imagine the criteria for me to pronounce something ‘best’ is wide, wild and all over the flipping place. But this documentary made me feel happy and so it’s up there.
Kim’s Video
Since 1987, and for almost three decades, New York cinephiles had access to a vast treasure trove of rare films thanks to Kim’s Video, a small empire run by Yongman Kim, an enigmatic character who amassed more than fifty thousand VHS tapes.
- Director:David Redmon, Ashley Sabin
- Screenwriter:David Redmon, Ashley Sabin
- Producer:David Redmon, Ashley Sabin, Deborah Smith, Rebecca Tabasky, Dale Smith, Francesco Galavotti
- Executive Producer:Angela Neillis, Mandy Chang, Bernie Kay
- Cast:Isabel Gillies, Robert Greene, Eric Hynes
- Cinematographer:David Redmon
- Editor:David Redmon, Ashley Sabin, Mari T. Becker
- Composer:Matthew Dougherty, Enrico Tilotta, Eric Taxier
It’s got investigative journalism, break-ins, heists, archive footage of New York’s LES, trips to Korea and Sicily, Mafia…all interspersed with classic and indie clips and footage of films, each aligning and adding a visual to the narrative whilst reminding you or even introducing you to the rich tapestry that is the world of film.
Filmmaker, David Redmon, takes us on a journey not only into the history of Kim’s Video, a video and music retail store in the East Village of New York, with a quest to find what became of the rare selections, but into the machinations of his own mind, the influence that film had and has on it. And just why this is more than a documentary, it’s an obsession.
And thank the gods of all that is popular culture and art that Redmon had this obsession.
For it, and ‘Kim’s Video’ allows us to meet some incredible main players and ‘protagonists’ that my life, reader, was missing (but just didn’t know it).
My Yongman Kim is of course one such character. The enigmatic Korean who entered New York as an immigrant, started off business life on a street market food stall, next entered the world of the launderette, diverted slightly in this same business by adding some VHS tapes to his shelves for rental, then quickly noticed that this sideline was overtaking as the main revenue.
An initially foreboding character, intrigue and appreciation leads you to inwardly cheer, akin old tapings of Cheers, when Ted Danson’s Sam made his entrance to the bar, each time Mr Kim re entered the film.
But, there are definite contenders for our affections with characters such as the Mayor, the Chief of Police and the guardian of the video tapes in Sicily’s Salemi, where promises to host the video tapes, once the bottom fell out of the VHS market, give them the respect due, and provide viewings and continued rental opportunities were broken.
With perhaps predictable but deliciously possible links to Mafia dealings creeping in and a Police Chief who started to warm to his own starring role in the filmmakers project, this is a documentary that has it all.
To break it down further is to remove the element of surprise and artistry. Back in the day, Kim’s Video, could truly have taken its rightful place on the shelves of, well, ‘Kim’s Video’, the “go-to place for rare selections” and “widely known among the cognoscenti of new, experimental and esoteric music and film”.
Meta. And also the finest accolade I think the filmmaker would agree could be given.
Now your mission is to track down a showing or streaming of this wonderful piece of filmmaking and investigative journalism.
And *spoiler alert*…
mine is to return once again to one of my favourite cities in the world to visit the relaunched Kim’s Video Underground in Lower Manhattan. Thank you Alamo Drafthouse, thank you David Redmon, and finally thank you Manchester Film Festival for bringing this into my life.
Be quick, Manchester Film Festival concludes its 10th outing today and we can all hope and wait for next year’s edition (perhaps, if rumours are correct, in a whole new setting).
Credit to Festival Director, Neil Jeram-Croft and the team, for a well curated, organised and happy event.
For now, that’s all folks…
honorary manc 
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