Rewind This!
Directed by Josh Johnson
Starring Frank Henenlotter, Drew McWeeny, and Charles Band
FilmBuff
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Available on iTunes
Official Site

Videotapes once played a huge role in my life. I grew up in a family that never had much money to splurge on weekend excursions to the local cinema, except on rare occasions. Therefore, we were reliant on home video to keep us up to date on the most popular movie releases of the day. In the beginning we had to not only rent the videos, but also the VCR to play them, and a neighborhood store called Video Circus carried the early model “top loaders” that were big enough to build the pyramids of Egypt with. For years my younger siblings and I were fixated on certain movies and every time my mother offered to rent us a movie for the weekend, we were always crowing for Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol or The Princess Bride. As I got older, I started to build my own collection of films on tape; my library officially kicked off on Christmas Day 1993 when my late grandmother Betty gifted me Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, and The Rocketeer.

Once I got my first job and suddenly felt the rush of having real money in my pocket for once, I purchased more tapes and even my first VCR, which I picked up dirt cheap at a thrift store. When I was 20, I started working for a Tower Records and Video in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia and took great advantage of an amazing employee discount to build my movie collection into a literal library of cinema. Having a VCR and access to digital cable movie channels precipitated the purchase of blank video tapes that could three to four movies depending on their length and how much storage space was on each tape. Within a few years, I had more movies than I had time to watch them.

Check this out! I had a chance to chat with director Josh Johnson, producer Carolee Mitchell, and Cinematographer/Editor Christopher Palmer at 2013’s South by Southwest Film Festival about the world premiere of their new VHS documentary, Rewind This!.

We discuss the impact of the VHS media format, hand-painted cover art, and childhood memories of Tim Burton’s Batman, Evil Dead II, and, you guessed it, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Check out my review of Rewind This! for more information on this kick-ass love letter to the video tape! Video interview with the filmmakers is here below.

Last Time on Skull-Face Island: Faithful robotic butler Mar-10 took Adam on a magical, mysterious journey to Austin, TX, to fulfill his destiny by visiting the South by Southwest Film Festival. David, worried that he may have inadvertently killed Adam using a voodoo doll, is searching the island for his lost companion. During all of this, Tim was drunk and hallucinating after drinking two-too-many Skull-Face Island Iced Teas”¦

Today’s Episode: We find Adam safe and sound in Austin, TX, where he is attending movies at SXSW. Mar-10 left to take care of some robot business, but gave Adam a special two-way radio to communicate with Tim (who has become a raging alcoholic) and report his moviegoing experiences.

We join Adam now as he contacts Tim with mini-reviews of Adam Wingard‘s You’re Next and Josh Johnson‘s VHS documentary, Rewind This! We’ll also check-in on David’s Adventure: The Mystery of the Missing Adam…

Rewind This!
Director: Josh Johnson
Cast: Atom Egoyan, Cassandra Peterson, David “The Rock” Nelson, Jason Eisener, Chris Strompolos, Frank Henenlotter, Lloyd Kaufman, Kevin Tenney, Charles Band, Mamoru Oshii

Synopsis: Home video changed the way the world consumed films. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. REWIND THIS! is a documentary that traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of art, technology, and societal perceptions that were altered by the creation of videotape. — IPF Productions.

Directed by Josh Johnson, Rewind This! chronicles the rise and fall of the Video Home System, better known by its acronym, VHS. Produced by Carolee Mitchell with cinematography and editing by Christopher Palmer, Rewind This! was shot over the course of three years as the filmmakers interviewed film critics, filmmakers, and industry professionals in the US, Canada, and Japan.

Check out the trailer and the hi-res poster art below!

Rewind This, a Kickstarter-funded documentary about the massive financial and cultural impact videocassettes had on the international film industry and the lives of hungry movie geeks looking for quality thrills on a Friday night, has a new trailer out today.

You can watch it here below.

Directed by newcomer Josh Johnson, Rewind This features interviews with many individuals who greatly benefited from the VHS boom of the 1980s and 90s including The Sweet Hereafter director Atom Egoyan, Hobo with a Shotgun director Jason Eisener, Troma Films honcho Lloyd Kaufman, Full Moon Video head Charles Band, David Gregory of Severin Films, online film critic Drew McWeeny, and many others not appearing in the trailer. Johnson has assembled a fantastic line-up of filmmakers, writers, fans, and a few of the video store owners and clerks who helped bring these black plastic rectangular boxes of wonderment to the masses and alter irrevocably alter the landscape of film production and distribution forever.