Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 27: REWIND THIS!
Josh Johnson’s paean to home video had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Other screenings have included IFF Boston, Puchon Fantastic, Fantasia, Melbourne, and the upcoming L’Etrange and Strasbourg fests. The doc premieres exclusively on iTunes today, expanding on September 10 to Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, XBOX, Sony PlayStation, Cinemanow, and Vudu.
A love letter to a largely obsolete format, Johnson’s film profiles collectors, filmmakers, and retailers past and present who reveal how VHS still holds them gleefully in thrall. At once both a history of the medium and the lucrative home entertainment industry it spawned, and an appreciation for what’s at the heart of holding on to the clunky artifacts, the doc offers much nostalgic appeal in an appropriately lo-fi package. Talking heads focused, with a welcome amount of illustrative clips from a treasure trove of schlocky, bizarre, or otherwise noteworthy VHS curiosities, this is simple fun – and respectful – pop cultural film geekery. But beyond appealing to the 1980s-90s generations who grew up with VCRs, Johnson wisely provides enough history and context to draw in younger viewers. Critics and filmmakers reflect on the way home video introduced the concept of timeshifting, fundamentally changing the way viewers engaged with broadcast television; how it encouraged close and repeat viewings, amusingly pointing out that heavily worn out sections of rental tapes typically presaged imminent sex or violence scenes that were obsessively rewatched by previous renters; note the explosion of film fandom and literacy, enabled by easy access to thousands of library titles previously rarely available except in repertory theatres or television broadcast; and gave the tools to fans and would-be filmmakers to both produce and easily share content, inspiring a vibrant low-budget filmmaking scene and bootlegging culture. In the face of this legacy, as well as the fact noted here that a significant body of work never made it past VHS onto latter day formats like DVD or BluRay, it’s easy to understand why many of the interviewees in Johnson’s film see treasure where others see junk.
what (not) to doc 