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 buff’s 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, auteur filmmaker and pop culture public intellectual 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.—Jason Gutierrez

Alex Ross Perry