Film

Kim's Video

Name: Kim's Video
Genre: Documentary, History
Released: 2023
Cast: David Redmon, Kim Yong-man, Vittorio Sgarbi, Isabel Gillies, Robert Greene

A documentary about Kim's Video, the legendary New York rental store that became a secret archive of rare and banned films. For nearly forty years, it was where cinephiles found the unfindable. This is a love letter to analog obsession, to the thrill of discovery, and to the people who preserve what the world tries to forget.

TMDb rating

3.5

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Overnight2003

A portrait of an obsessive artist whose vision consumes everything around him. Like Kim's Video, it's fascinated by the gap between ambition and reality, and what it costs to make something nobody asked for.

But It's a fairly brutal character study that doesn't resolve neatly. Some viewers find it frustrating rather than tragic.

Cinerama Holiday1955

A vast, multi-screen travelogue that represents cinema as expansive spectacle. It's the kind of thing Kim's Video preserved—a film few theaters could show, now rescued from obscurity.

But The narrative is gossamer-thin and the point-of-view is mid-century tourist America. It can feel more like a museum piece than a movie.

The Last Blockbuster2020

A joyful documentary about Blockbuster Video and the culture of late-return fees and serendipitous browsing. A kindred spirit to Kim's Video—both about the ritual of physical media and accidental discovery.

But It's more nostalgic and less philosophical. Blockbuster was a chain; Kim's Video was a singular obsession, and the comparison only goes so far.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kim's Video

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Rewind This!2013

Both are testimonies to the cult of physical media and the people who worship at its altar. Rewind This! lets you meet the Kims of the world directly.

A documentary about VHS collecting culture itself—the hunters, the hoarders, the people who refuse to let the format die. It's the mirror image of Kim's Video: both filmed love letters to analog excess, but this one centers the collectors rather than the collection.

But The meta-documentary can feel recursive and claustrophobic. You're watching people obsessed with archives about obsession with archives.

F for Fake1973

Orson Welles meditates on authenticity, forgery, and what we choose to believe. It shares Kim's Video's obsession with hidden truths and the stories objects hold if you look closely enough.

But It's a formal essay-film that moves at its own pace. Contemporary viewers sometimes find it indulgent or puzzling.

Burden of Dreams1982

A documentary following Werner Herzog's mad, impossible production of Fitzcarraldo. It's about artistic obsession taken to its logical extreme, and the documentarian's own fascination with that obsession.

But It's a slog—over three hours watching a project derail. The chaos is real but exhausting, and sympathies shift depending on who you're rooting for.

A Film About Coffee2014

Deceptively simple documentary about specialty coffee that becomes a meditation on craft, passion, and the people who preserve excellence in a capitalist world. Unexpectedly moving.

But It's about coffee, fundamentally. If the subject feels too niche, the film won't convert you no matter how well-made it is.

Ghostland2018

A meta-documentary about a film restoration lab and the work of saving cinema from decay. Direct thematic mirror to Kim's Video—both about rescue and preservation as an act of love.

But The pacing is slow and archival. It's more mood piece than narrative, and some find it more interesting as concept than execution.

Cameraperson2016

Documentary essayist Kirsten Johnson assembles scenes from decades of footage she's shot worldwide. It's about how images accumulate meaning, how archives become autobiography—adjacent to Kim's collection logic.

But There's no linear story and the connection between scenes is intuitive rather than explained. It requires active, meditative viewing.

The Brood1979

This is what 'rare and banned' meant. Kim's Video rescued works like this from erasure—films too strange or transgressive for mainstream channels. To watch Brood is to understand why the archive mattered.

David Cronenberg's strange, violent fever dream about a woman who manifests her rage as physical monsters. It has nothing to do with video stores, but it's exactly the kind of obscure, banned, and philosophically dense work Kim's collection was built to preserve.

But It's visceral, unpleasant body-horror cinema. Difficult to watch, wilfully uncomfortable, and the kind of film people either defend fiercely or avoid.