00:00From the 1980s to the 2010s, video stores were a ubiquitous part of the American retail landscape.
00:12Videos were available to rent nearly everywhere, in mom-and-pop stores, chain stores, electronic stores, even supermarkets and gas stations.
00:22During this time, the video store became equally common as a location in hundreds and hundreds of films and television shows.
00:30These fictionalized moments on screen are now the only recorded archive of the lifespan of the video store.
00:37They show video stores as places where anything can happen. Comedy, drama, action, romance, horror or violence.
00:46These depictions evolved over the years, as did our notions of what the video store was, what function it served in our lives and what this dynamic said about our relationship to renting movies.
01:00Today, video stores on screen exist only in period pieces, reminders of an industry that once seemed stable and now is all but extinct.
01:15This is the story of the video store, told through these time capsules.
01:19The story of what they were, how they flourished, how the filmmakers depicting video stores became complicit in their demise and what happened next.
01:27This is the story of the birth, life, death and afterlife of the video store.
01:40They used to be everywhere, in our lives and on our screens. Now they're gone.
01:46They exist only in video heaven.
01:52At home at night, I'm all alone, watching the TV screen.
