The legendary Kim’s Video is resurrected yet again.
After Alamo Drafthouse purchased the collection of roughly 55,000 DVDs and VHS tapes to reopen the video store in the theater’s Downtown Manhattan location, an eponymous Kim’s Video documentary opted to redesign the original East Village storefront as a miniature 3D replica.
Artist Chris Bilheimer re-created the iconic Kim’s Video for the documentary’s poster, which featured mini VHS tapes and a tiny model of video store founder Youngman Kim. The restored Kim’s Video at Drafthouse opened in 2022, and also spurred a web series featuring filmmaker visits to the store.
The “Kim’s Video” documentary debuted at Sundance 2024 and is directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon. The documentary was released May 6 on digital platforms, including Apple TV and Prime Video, and DVD + Blu-ray from Drafthouse Films.
Founder Kim, who is featured in the documentary about his legacy staple for cinephiles, told IndieWire that he set out to “educate customers” with Kim’s Video.
“We put our new acquisitions on the wall to see how people responded, and OK, some people didn’t even touch it if they were not familiar with the titles,” Kim said. “But some of them, one after another, they would talk about it and they talk to each other and they would start to love it. Kim’s Video took the initiative to introduce new cultures to audiences. There was always something that people didn’t recognize. The bigger picture is the culture that travels from community to community.”
Todd Phillips, Alex Ross Perry, and Kate Lyn Sheil all worked at Kim’s Video, and Quentin Tarantino credited the store for helping inspire “Kill Bill.”
Kim added to IndieWire that the curated Kim’s Video collection was crafted in response to customers’ selections.
“The collection was really built by the recommendations from customers and friends, not only from my own tastes,” Kim said. “Primarily, the legacy of Kim’s Video is the connection between East to West, underground to the mainstream, and independent filmmakers to Hollywood. It must make that connection. […] Everybody agrees that we had a very unusual kind of collection. It’s a public asset.”
Check out the behind-the-scenes video below.
