In short
Podcast Episode Summary: Remembering Kim's Video, the World's Coolest Video Store
Podcast Overview Title: The Culture Journalist Hosts: Emilie Friedlander and Andrea Domanick Description: A podcast exploring the evolution of cultural trends before they become mainstream. Episode Link: [The Culture Journalist](https://theculturejournalist.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
Episode Description This episode centers around the loss of Kim’s Video, a celebrated video and record store in New York City. The hosts discuss the emotional impact of its closure and reflect on the cultural significance it held in the community.
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Key Themes and Discussions
- Nostalgia for Physical Media
- Cultural Loss: The hosts share sentiments regarding the loss of independent cultural spaces in cities like New York and Los Angeles.
- Personal Connection: Emilie recounts how working at Kim's Video shaped her understanding of film and culture.
- Kim's Video: A Cultural Landmark
- Influence: Kim's Video was renowned for its vast collection of unique and obscure films, attracting cinephiles and notable figures like Quentin Tarantino and Chloë Sevigny.
- The Store's Closure: The shocking announcement of the store’s closure led to confusion and disappointment among its loyal patrons.
- The Search for Kim's Collection
- Filmmakers on a Mission: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, filmmakers and avid fans of Kim's Video, embarked on a quest to locate the store's collection after it was moved to Salemi, Italy.
- Unraveling a Mystery: Their journey revealed a complex story that extended beyond the mere loss of a video rental store, delving into themes of culture, media consumption, and nostalgia.
- Impact of Digital Streaming
- Cultural Shift: The episode discusses how the transition to digital and streaming services has altered the way people interact with media, often at the expense of physical experiences.
- Tangible Experiences: There is a discussion about the societal yearning for a more tangible connection to culture, as seen in the renewed interest in Kim’s collection.
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Featured Guest David Redmon
- Background: A filmmaker and former sociologist, deeply influenced by his experiences at Kim’s Video.
- Documentary: Co-directed "Kim's Video," which documents the journey of recovering the storied collection and explores its broader cultural implications.
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Conclusion The episode serves as a poignant reminder of the cultural treasures that are lost in the face of modernization and the rise of digital media. It invites listeners to reflect on the importance of preserving physical spaces that foster cultural engagement and communal experiences.
Additional Notes
- A special subscriber-only bonus episode will feature Emilie reading an essay about her experiences working at Kim's Video.
- The documentary "Kim’s Video" is available for viewing on [Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/kims-video/umc.cmc.42a2bktr2f2i71rni6y4gedhu) and [Amazon Prime Video](https://www.amazon.com/Kims-Video-David-Redmon/dp/B0CVXKWHZC/ref=sr_1_1).
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For more insights and discussions on culture, visit [The Culture Journalist’s Substack](https://theculturejournalist.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:17Hey, pals. It's Andrea and Emily with The Culture Journalist. So living in a city like New York, for example, but also many other cities is a constant exercise in seeing the things that you love go away. For me, I think a lot about Echo Park in L.A. and how in a matter of years it went from being this hub of small venues and cool dive bars where I discovered bands and really met some of the most important people in my life to becoming basically a stretch of sterile high rises and empty lots waiting to be speculated upon. Or maybe you think about the cult video store where you worked your first summer job and that shaped your taste in film and underground culture.
1:01And how it finally closed up after years of holding out against the tide of streaming media. That last one actually happened to you, right, Emily? Yes, it did. In case you haven't inferred, we're talking about Kim's video in New York City. It was my first job out of high school. And I worked there through the end of high school and early college. and it had a really, really big impact on my cultural education and sort of just who I am as a journalist and critic today. So yeah, today we're going to talk about Kim's Video. Kim's Video was hugely influential. A hybrid video and record store with a flagship location on St.
1:42Mark's Place in the East Village and clerks who were both revered and feared for their encyclopedic knowledge of film and music. Its video rental collection especially was one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, with a wealth of cinematic obscurities and hard-to-find gems that made it a cult destination among local cinephiles and famous actors and directors alike. Think like Quentin Tarantino and exactly the kinds of movies you can imagine Quentin Tarantino wanting to see. For better and for worse. So when the shop's owner, the Mr. Kim, posted an ad looking for someone to take in the store's collection, and it subsequently ended up in a small town in Italy called Salemi, of all places, it's not surprising that one Kim's video devotee and former member decided to track down the shop's vast and unique cinematic archives to see what the hell was up.
2:36That devotee's name is David Redman. He's a filmmaker and former sociologist whose sensibilities and experience of New York City were shaped by Kim's video. But when he and his wife and filmmaking partner, Ashley Sabin, set out to find the shop's collection, they ended up uncovering a story that was much deeper and stranger than the typical tale of streaming supplanting digital media. Unraveling the mystery of Kim's video would take them six years and across multiple continents. From Salemi, the Sicilian village where David found the archives in disarray, to South Korea, to the New Jersey home of the shop's enigmatic impresario, Young Man Kim.
3:15That story, and the resulting fate of the Kim's video collection, is captured in David and Ashley's fascinating and often baffling documentary, Kim's Video. David joins us to talk about the story of Kim's video, the shop, and young man Kim, who famously started selling videos out of a dry cleaning shop after emigrating to New York from South Korea. We also try to wrap our mind around the particular era in underground culture and in the history of the East Village, of which Kim's was such an important part. We talk about what we lose when our consumption of media loses its connection to physical objects and whether the current interest in the Kim's collection, which the directors eventually helped return to its current location at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, is symptomatic of a larger societal yearning for a more tangible experience of culture.
4:06And, of course, we get into what actually happened when he got to the Italian village of Salemi in pursuit of the archives, some of which didn't make it into the film. We'll be right back with David after the break.
4:24Start to power going underground. Going underground. Let the boys all sing. Let the boys all shout for tomorrow.
4:35And that's it for the free preview version of this episode. There's lots more ahead. Get full access by becoming a paid subscriber for just five bucks a month over at theculturejournalist.substack.com.
From the publisher
Living in a city like New York is a constant exercise in seeing the things that you love go away. And for independent culture fans in the city, one of the most devastating losses of this century was that of Kim’s Video, a hybrid video and record store with a flagship location on Saint Marks Place in the East Village and clerks who were both revered and feared for their encyclopedic knowledge of film and music.
Kim’s Video holds a special place in Emilie’s heart — she worked her first job out of high school there. And for many decades, it was home to one of the largest and most comprehensive video rental collections in the world, with a wealth of cinematic obscurities and hard-to-find gems that earned it a cult following among both local cinephiles and art-house legends like Quentin Tarantino, Chloë Sevigny, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Coen brothers. So when the shop’s enigmatic impresario, Mr. Kim, announced that Kim’s Video was closing up shop, and it came out that the store’s 55,000-work collection had ended up in a small Italian town called Salemi, a lot of people were understandably very upset and confused.
Lucky for us, two filmmakers and Kim’s Video devotees — David Redmon and Ashley Sabin — decided to track down the collection. But when they arrived in Salemi and discovered the archives in a state of disarray, they found themselves in the middle of a cross-continental mystery that took them from Sicily, to South Korea, to Mr. Kim’s New Jersey home, and that ran much deeper than a simple case of streaming supplanting your local video rental place. That story, and the resulting fate of the Kim’s Video collection, are captured in David and Ashley’s fascinating and often baffling feature documentary, Kim’s Video.
Today, David joins us to talk about the story of Kim’s Video and Yong-man Kim, who famously started selling videos out of a dry cleaning shop after emigrating to New York from South Korea. We also explore the particular era in underground culture, and in the history of the East Village, of which Kim’s was such an important part; what we lose when our consumption of media loses its connection to physical objects; and whether the current interest in the Kim’s collection, which the directors helped return to its current location at Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Manhattan, is symptomatic of a larger yearning for a more tangible experience of culture.
PS. Later this month, we’ll be releasing a special subscriber-only bonus episode where Emilie reads an essay she wrote on her experiences working as a clerk. Sign up for a paid subscription to get it straight to your inbox.
Watch Kim’s Video on Apple TV or Prime Video.
Follow Kim's Video (the film) on Instagram.
Follow Kim’s Video (the collection) on Instagram.
Check out more of David and Ashley’s work at Carnivalesque Films.
