Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Listen to the introduction and discussion between director Alex Ross Perry and Jared Case, Curator of Film Exhibitions, during a screening event for the director's film Videoheaven (Alex Ross Perry, US 2025, 180 min., DCP) at the George Eastman Museum on July 30, 2025.
As VHS became the dominant home video format in the early 1980s and consumer demand for new and classic films grew, the need for a space where people could rent the still-expensive-to-purchase tapes created an opening for the proliferation of the video store. While the shift from the cinema to the home had ramifications that the film industry is still contending with, it also opened new, exciting horizons for cinephiles to interact with the medium. Barriers of time collapsed and suddenly the full scope of film history was available to fans — the ability to manipulate movies using simple tools like fast forward, rewind and pause functions on a VCR gave movie buffs the power to engage with their favorite films in completely new ways, and the video store provided a forum to discuss these films with fellow cinephiles. Factors like these gave rise to the video store’s power not just as a consumer mecca, but also a sociocultural hub.
Drawing inspiration from the work of scholars like Daniel Herbert and filmmakers like Thom Anderson, whose seminal Los Angeles Plays Itself is a crucial progenitor, filmmaker Alex Ross Perry’s 10-years-in-the-making essay-documentary Videoheaven is a fascinating, beautiful, absorbing exploration of the video store as a vitally important site of film culture. Mining footage from an eclectic range of sources and aided by a wryly evocative voiceover from Maya Hawke, Perry’s latest is a crucial contribution to the canon of films about film culture.
For more events like this, visit eastman.org/events/film-screenings
Listen to the introduction and discussion between director Alex Ross Perry and Jared Case, Curator of Film Exhibitions, during a screening event for the director's film Videoheaven (Alex Ross Perry, US 2025, 180 min., DCP) at the George Eastman Museum on July 30, 2025.
As VHS became the dominant home video format in the early 1980s and consumer demand for new and classic films grew, the need for a space where people could rent the still-expensive-to-purchase tapes created an opening for the proliferation of the video store. While the shift from the cinema to the home had ramifications that the film industry is still contending with, it also opened new, exciting horizons for cinephiles to interact with the medium. Barriers of time collapsed and suddenly the full scope of film history was available to fans — the ability to manipulate movies using simple tools like fast forward, rewind and pause functions on a VCR gave movie buffs the power to engage with their favorite films in completely new ways, and the video store provided a forum to discuss these films with fellow cinephiles. Factors like these gave rise to the video store’s power not just as a consumer mecca, but also a sociocultural hub.
Drawing inspiration from the work of scholars like Daniel Herbert and filmmakers like Thom Anderson, whose seminal Los Angeles Plays Itself is a crucial progenitor, filmmaker Alex Ross Perry’s 10-years-in-the-making essay-documentary Videoheaven is a fascinating, beautiful, absorbing exploration of the video store as a vitally important site of film culture. Mining footage from an eclectic range of sources and aided by a wryly evocative voiceover from Maya Hawke, Perry’s latest is a crucial contribution to the canon of films about film culture.
For more events like this, visit eastman.org/events/film-screenings
