Living in our hyperdigital age means we can summon just about anything we want to watch with a touch of a button. But over the years, it’s become more and more evident just how tenuous our hold on some of these titles might be. Streaming services often focus on creating new, blandly appealing content over cultivating quality options for customers, often to the exclusion of older or more obscure titles. And those services frequently disappear their offerings on a whim; Max and Disney+ regularly purge their own IP, and Warner Bros straight up deleted the ill-fated Batgirl movie.
Enter physical media! Meet Night Owl Video, a new store in Williamsburg leading the charge. The 288 Grand Street store is the brainchild of Aaron Hamel and Jess Mills, Brooklyn residents and film buffs who met while working at legendary B-movie studio Troma Entertainment. The pair had batted around the idea of a store before, but one November night, “after one too many beers,” they decided to take the plunge.
The Grand Street storefront was the first they toured, and they signed a lease just a couple months ago. The store will offer physical media in a range of options, from DVDs and VHS tapes, to vinyl records, and even LaserDiscs (not to mention plenty of film memorabilia and accessories).
And where better to open than in an area with a built-in cinephile community, who regularly flock to places like Spectacle (124 S. 3rd St.), Nitehawk (136 Metropolitan Ave.), and Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave.)
“There has always been a healthy film community in NYC but there hasn’t been a space for congregation and shopping both new releases and used physical media since the tragic closing of Kim’s Video,” Hamel and Mills told Greenpointers. “This already thriving film community is growing as audiences are frustrated with streaming services being overpriced, removing content, having terrible algorithms, and changing their business models at a moment’s notice. There are also distributors such as Severin Films, Radiance Films, Vinegar Syndrome, etc, who are making beautiful restorations of films with incredible special features; this boom in [ultra-high definition] is also helping renew interest in physical media.”
Hamel and Mills plan on tapping into the area’s preexisting cinephile network, with upcoming events like “a screening series at Nitehawk, in-store signings with Oscilloscope Films (our neighbor!), local tape fairs, movie trivia pop-ups and much, much more.”
The store officially opens to the public this Friday, April 11. The store’s opening hours will be Tuesday through Sunday, from 12 to 8 pm. Stay tuned on what’s next at @NightOwlVid on Instagram and NightOwlVid.com.
Good for you guys and the best of luck.
I’ve been toying with the idea of passing on my ‘old school’ music.
Wondering if your a reasonable target.
I’ve got around 5’ of vinyl, boxes of cassettes, and CD’s.
Two receivers, vintage (of course) JVC and a Lafayette. A couple of turntables, DVD/VHS player and a couple of CD players. Plus two pair of big wooden speakers and one pair of small wooden speakers.
Would you be interested?
Hi I have over 500 Dvd/And Blue Ray some opened some still sealed all in great shape and about 300 CD
Make me an offer.
I don’t know where to post this but it is store related. Capture Records in Greenpoint across the street from Peter Pan Donuts opened I think last July and I don’t believe it was mentioned by Greenpointers. If I am wrong on either point, I apologize. I past it on Sat, April 12 and there was literally at least fifty people waiting to get in. The store is small and narrow but I believe has a. basement. FYI.