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Vidiots Launches the Video Store into the Next Era
Vidiots, the iconic Santa Monica movie rental store-turned film non-profit, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo with the goal of raising $65,000 to keep the doors open and to fund new programs.
Just last year, Vidiots was in danger of closing after 30 years in business. Not long after co-owners Cathy Tauber and Patty Polinger announced they were going to have to shutter, they got a last-minute donation from film producer Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures. But Vidiots needs to continue raising money in order to launch new programs and initiatives to preserve and provide access to their diverse and growing library of over 50,000 titles, including a rare VHS collection.
Maggie Mackay, executive director, Vidiots Foundation told Filmmaker: “Our mission at Vidiots is to protect and provide access to all filmmakers’ work, from the most historically significant and widely known, to the most emerging. We plan to work with other film organizations, video stores, and libraries in any and every way we can to maintain and grow an inclusive culture of access and human interaction around film. This is undoubtedly an ambitious movement, but one we feel is fundamental to the health of a thriving, long-lasting art form, and one that should be hugely important to the filmmaking and programming communities, and all those who exhibit, promote, finance and love film as we do.”
Among the campaign perks are autographed celebrity postcards ($50), the opportunity to curate an entire section of the store ($200) and having Vidiots’ 11,000-title VHS library named in your honor ($10,000). For $1,000, you can secure two VIP tickets to the upcoming The Harry Dean Stanton Award, an annual tribute to an iconic member of the film community whose body of work has helped define American cinema. Actor Harry Dean Stanton, the Awards’ namesake, will be honored at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles on October 23, 2016.
