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Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It. I'm Kousha Navidar, in for Alison Stewart. Thanks for spending part of your Thursday with us. Let's have a fun couple of hours together. On today's show, Leyla McCalla's new solo album drops tomorrow, and she joins us for a listening party. We'll talk about sheet pan meals with the co-authors of a new cookbook, and artist Rose B. Simpson will join us to talk about her new public art exhibit, which is in two locations here in Manhattan. That's the plan. Let's get this started with the new documentary, Kim's Video.

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Hey, film buffs. If you lived in New York during the '90s and 2000s, do the words Kim's Video ring a bell? It's the name of an iconic rental store that was once on St. Mark's. It was run by a man named Yongman Kim. Mr. Kim's video store was home to 50,000 arthouse, cult, classic, and foreign films. At one point, the store had 250,000 members. It ranged from everyday hipsters to bigwig directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers. No biggie. Once the pivot to streaming happened, Mr. Kim's stores, the one on St. Mark's, and others in the chain, lost business. The last store closed in 2014.

His massive collection of 50,000 films were in limbo, until one day, a small village in Sicily, yes, in Italy, agreed to store them. Local officials promised they would make the collection accessible to the public. At least that's what they said. That's when two filmmakers came to document the journey. They found the videos, stored in poor condition, and a thread of corrupt Italian politicians who refused to let go of the collection.

As movie lovers, these filmmakers went on a quest to get these videos back, and the documentary, Kim's Video, captures that journey. It's out in theaters now, and with us today to talk about it are co-directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. Hi, both.

Ashley Sabin: Hi. Thanks for having us.

David Redmon: Hello. Good afternoon.

Kousha Navidar: We have Yongman Kim, the founder of Kim's Video, here with us, too. Hi, Mr. Kim. Welcome to WNYC.

Yongman Kim: Thanks for having me.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely.

Yongman Kim: What's going on here?

Kousha Navidar: Hey, movie buffs, have you been to Kim's Video in Manhattan? Maybe you have a fond memory of renting a DVD or VHS there, or maybe you want to bask in the nostalgia of the video rental era. We're with Yongman Kim, the founder of Kim's Video, and filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, the filmmakers who trace the journey of this iconic New York video store. Give us a call or text us. We're at 212-433-9692, or you can tell us your story on our socials. We're @allofitwnyc.

Okay, so David, let's start with your role in the film. When did you first hear about Kim's Video?

David Redmon: When did I first hear about Kim's Video? Well, I think when I first moved to New York, and I was walking the streets, I was searching for movies, and I asked a bunch of pedestrians outside on the sidewalk, where can I find movies? As indicated in the movie, they looked at me like I was crazy, shrugged their shoulders, and said, Kim's Video, so I went to search for Kim's Video.

Kousha Navidar: Ashley, how about you?

Ashley Sabin: We're joined at the hip, which is both good and bad, depending on the day. We moved to New York at the same time in the early 2000s. We hadn't gone to film school. We were making films, so we were really trying to find a place to access films so that we could learn.

David Redmon: Just quickly up. Before I met Ashley, I'd been in New York in the late '90s. Just to specify, that's when I first found out about Kim's Video. Then later, Ashley and I met.

Kousha Navidar: Got it, so '90s for you, and then Ashley was a little bit later on?

Ashley Sabin: It's more important to you, is that what you're saying?

[laughter]

Kousha Navidar: Mr. Kim, how about you? When David and Ashley approached you about the movie, what was your first reaction? Did you think there was a story worth telling here?

Yongman Kim: Well, besides David and Ashley, there were a whole bunch of the documentary filmmakers. They approached for the documentary project about me and Kim's Video. I didn't want to really bother. I just wanted to be forgotten. I was very upset when I closed on my last door, and I felt like I was a loser. I don't want to appeal to the public anymore. David and Ashley, when they approached to me also, I was very cynical, and I was very reluctant.

When David reached me out, I asked him to come to South Korea, which meant to be-- I didn't think that he would come to the Korea to see me, but he came, so very surprised me, and I realized that they were very sincere. Also, David showed me a lot of footage that he already shot three years before he met me. He was very impressed.

Kousha Navidar: Sorry, go ahead. Finish up. Well, I was going to say, it's clear that Ashley and David, and even you, Mr. Kim, the film and movie industry, and films, in general, mean so much to you three. I'm curious to learn more about the video rental store. I grew up in the '90s, and like a lot of '90s kids, my local movie rental store continues to be one of my happiest places in my memory. Ashley, what do you think made Kim's Video so special compared to some other rental stores at the time?

David Redmon: Kim's Video is not just to the renting the movie place. The Kim's Video was the very interactive between Kim's steps, clocks, and customer as audiences. We always offer something that what we know about films and filmmakers, and all the artists who contribute to make the one film. Also, we were very specialized the B and C class, the films, which is how our communities always consist not only with the top 1% people. There's always the old type of people consist of our community really make pretty interesting and beautiful.

Kousha Navidar: Ashley, I asked you about why it was so special. We heard Mr. Kim explain that a little bit. Tell me, if we were to enter Kim's Video in, say, 1999 or whenever it was at its peak, what would we see? In the film, I saw a clip where what Mr. Kim was alluding to, there was a band performing the story. It looks super lively. Describe it to us a little bit. Ashley, go ahead.

Ashley Sabin: There was many levels. You walk in, and there was the music level. You go up the stairs, there was the film level, and then in the final floor was the rental level. That's the beauty of this whole store, and why I think it's still so important as a cultural space is that you never knew what you were going to go in and see. You got lost, and you got lost in the movies. You got lost in conversation with other film lovers or even music lovers.

This is just the spontaneity and humanity of existence that's just super beautiful and inspiring, especially as a maker of film, and someone that, I think for us, especially because we were so DIY, and still our DIY, it's just that space. It's like we need that kind of space so badly. The clerks had a reputation. Mr. Kim had a reputation, and all of that fed into the mystique of the place. It was fun, quirky, strange, wild, and it fulfilled all the personalities and needs of a human.

Kousha Navidar: We have some callers ready who can, I think, be testament to that fact. If you're just listening and tuning in, this is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, and we're talking with the creators of the documentary Kim's Video. It chronicles the history of one of the most iconic rental video stores in New York City, titled Kim's Video. We're also joined by Mr. Kim, who ran the store back in the '90s and 2000s. We have a caller, Chip, from the Bronx. Hi Chip, welcome to the show.

Chip: Hey, welcome. Thank you for having me. First of all, I want to say hi to Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim, thank you for hiring me [laughs]. I actually was a video manager for Mr. Kim in Kim's Video on St. Mark's place back in the day.

Kousha Navidar: Wow, and what was your memory of the store, Chip?

Chip: It was back in the day when buffs flooded St. Mark's when it was just really chaotic. It was like that amalgamation of the craziness of New York City, and Kim's just swept in and stood them all, like video and music were all about. One of the things that really stood out for me was just the eclectic amount of people who would come in, not only for the music but for the video selection and whatnot. We had a great amount of amazing mix of people who would come in just as video lovers.

Kousha Navidar: Chip, thank you so much for adding to that element that we were hearing about, about how it really got a cross-section of the city. We've also got Ellen in Manhattan. Hi, Ellen. Welcome to the show.

Ellen: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I've lived in the Lower East Side since 1979, and I remember Mr. Kim when he started with a greengrocer a few doors up from where he ended up with the first video store on Avenue A. It broke my heart when the video store went away because it really was a place where you could get a lot of amazing things you couldn't find anywhere else. It was like a gourmet restaurant compared to blockbusters of the McDonald's.

I also wanted to just call out a man named Shehab Cherchi who worked for Mr. Kim early on. He was a Moroccan immigrant and a crazy film buff. He also, I think, really was instrumental in building that original collection, and turning it into the place where you could find all of this film that you wouldn't find anywhere else. I just wanted to call out his name as well.

Kousha Navidar: Ellen, thank you so much. Yongman, I want to know. How does it feel to hear these folks calling in, folks that worked for you, folks that frequented the shop, and remembered the grocery store before the shop? How does it feel to be such a deep part of the tapestry of New York City?

Yongman Kim: Well, it's a great reminder. Ellen and Chip, really nice meeting you over this radio station. I appreciate that you still are following and giving me all those memories that you had a good time. Shehab, yes, he was one of my best staff. Yes, he contributed to select a lot of the films that we added to Kim's Video. That reminds me a lot of things that going back to 1980 and 1970, especially Ellen's comment that I started from green grocery since 1981.

My life was very, very big change from Avenue A in the East Village. Although there was a very chaotic condition and very dangerous in, we call that Alphabet City, in East Village, but, really, I enjoyed from my young age. I started at 21, aged 21, there. I had all those good and bad times but, overall, I had wonderful experiences and memory back from 1980.

Kousha Navidar: it sounds like you've made a big difference in many people's lives, which is partially what this documentary goes into. Listeners, we're talking about the new documentary, Kim's Video. If you're a movie buff, if you've been living in New York City for a while, you might have heard of the store. Maybe you have a fond memory of renting a movie there. We're talking about the documentary. We're taking your calls. We want you to tell us the story that you have with Kim's Video if you remember it. Give us a call. Shoot us a text. We're at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. I want to get into the meat of the documentary. First, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this.

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This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, and we're talking about Kim's Video. It's a documentary about the iconic video rental store in New York. We're with Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, who are the producer-directors, and the owner of Kim's Video, Mr. Yongman Kim.

I want to get into the meat of the documentary. A majority of the film takes place in Salemi, which is a small town in Sicily where they housed Kim's Video collection after the last store shut down. David, you start unraveling this string of corruption and mismanagement in this Italian town. At what point did you, David, realize, "Hey, this might not be the film I imagined it to be"?

David Redmon: Well, I guess, together, Ashley and I, never imagined what the film would be, and I think that's what our approach is to making movies and documentaries in general. We're open to the experience, and when we encounter the experience, we try to fold it into the tapestry of the story. I was open to whatever I encountered whether it be random dogs in the street trying to attack me or discovering this incredible amount of movies that are stored in a warehouse.

Kousha Navidar: Another element of the documentary that I found especially interesting was the tone of the film. David, we hear your voice narrating most of the film, and you're a character in the story. When did you decide, you and Ashley, decide that you wanted to include yourself in the story?

David Redmon: Well, I didn't want to have my voice in the movie other than holding the camera, and then Ashley pushed me for years to put my narration in the movie. Do you want to speak to that?

Ashley Sabin: We just sort of call him a reluctant narrator. I mean, even when we were recording the voiceover at the end, he struggled to do it, but we just felt there's so many complicated elements to that story and the collection going over there, and so many parts that aren't even in the story that we had to cut out in the end. We pulled his voiceover out of the story as we were editing. We showed someone because we didn't want his voiceover. We didn't want the talking heads, and it just didn't make any sense. We said, "You know what? We have to have a backbone to this whole thing." That really is David's journey in going into Salemi, and him picking up the camera and just talking to people.

Kousha Navidar: It's done in a very man-on-the-street style where it is not necessarily planned, and it seems like you're pushing folks right up until they are willing to do something. I noticed that with one of the police officers, especially. The way that you had a relationship in the beginning is quite different than the way you have a relationship at the end of the film. Did you actually form friendships and relationships with the folks that you were talking to over the course of the years that you were doing this film?

David Redmon: Yes, if you're speaking to me, indeed, there was friendships made throughout the six years of making this documentary. As you indicated, entering the Kim's Video collection, and something happens. The police show up. The security guard shows up. Other people show up, who I still don't know who these guys are. They were quite upset and confused on how I entered this collection when the door was locked. Throughout the course of making that movie, I probably went there about 20 times and got to know people. At the end, Enrico, he scored and created the majority of the music for the movie.

Ashley Sabin: Enrico was the caretaker of the collection.

David Redmon: Yes. The first person I encountered after I entered the movie collection. Yes, Diego, he warmed up to me. I warmed up to him, and there's other people behind the scenes who are not in the movie that also helped with the making of the documentary.

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, if you're just joining us, this is All Of It on WNYC. We're talking about Kim's Video. It's a new documentary about the iconic video rental store. You might have heard of Kim's Video if you've lived in New York for a bit. If you have a memory of it, or you want to give a shout-out to Mr. Kim, who's on the line with us now. Give us a call. Shoot us a text. The number is 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. We've got some more callers I'd love to get to. We have Arlene from New Jersey. Hi, Arlene. Welcome to the show.

Arlene: Hi. Thank you. Okay, so I grew up in the city. My family had the first health food bakery right around the corner of the Orpheum Theater, I don't know, in the '70s. Anyhow, I taught at Ramapo College. I taught drawing. I don't know how it came to be, but we got a huge collection of Kim's Video in the 2000s. [crosstalk]

Kousha Navidar: Wow. You had a part of the collection for a little bit of time. That's wild. What ended up happening with it?

David Redmon: Should I answer too?

Arlene: Well, no, it's hundreds of them. At The Berrie Center at Ramapo College, we painted a closet silver outside and inside for these great videos. I taught at the College of Contemporary Arts there. I think it was Warner Wada who arranged it.

Kousha Navidar: Arlene, thank you so much for that call. You're touching on something that we're going to get to in a second, which is what happened with the videos. Mr. Kim, I want to bring you in there, but before we do that, we have got a time for just, I think, maybe one more caller. Robin in Long Island City. Hi, Robin. Welcome to the show.

Robin: Hi. Thanks. I lived on Christopher Street, two blocks away from Kim's Video. I think it was on 10th and Bleecker. It was really an education in film, because the best thing about the store was how they organized everything. They did it in terms of the best directors. I found Stephen Frears, and the Coen Brothers, and Paul Shaffer, and all these wonderful directors, some of whom have passed away now.

I was an actor. I'm now a professor, NYU Theater, PhD. I think Kim should still be around because it really taught you what to look for in film. The organization was, in a way, that not blockbusters or any other place organized their films. It was great. You can't imagine how sad I was when they closed. I couldn't believe that Kim's closed.

Kousha Navidar: Robin, thank you so much for that. I'm sure that, Mr. Kim, you probably feel really gratified hearing that. There's just one more text that I want to bring in, that I think captures the era pretty well. “I started going to Mr. Kim's in the early '90s. I would skate at the Cube, then go to Trash and Vaudeville, then his shop. Love both of those places,” Jim from Brooklyn.

I just want to thank all the callers for calling in and demonstrating what this documentary in some ways demonstrates, which is that the video store was an important element of culture in New York City for a long period of time. Mr. Kim, I don't want to spoil the ending of the film, but it is already out there that your collection has been restored, and it's found a new home at Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Lower Manhattan. I'd love to know, Mr. Kim, how does it feel to have your collection housed again and back in New York City?

Yongman Kim: Let me go back to the Ramapo collection. I had 11 store that I opened. Sometime that I closed a little bit early due to the conflict with the landlord, and sometimes that I had to close the location. For any reason that I closed, all those collection that belong to each location, donated to a school, especially a college institution. Ramapo was one of them. I donated 35,000 title to the Ramapo College. That was the reason why probably she saw a lot of Kim's Video collection in their library there.

The film that is coming back to New York, when I decided to send it to Salemi, I thought I gave away enough copies of the video and DVD to New York and New Jersey area enough. I thought the last collection from Mondo Kim's was very fair to send to the Europe, with my hope that collection can attract the European community, especially young artists coming to the new platform in Salemi in Sicily, which is a beautiful town. That platform, hopefully, they share, they expand more diversity to bring some more people coming in to talk about the films and art.

Overall, that didn't go all the way through as we planned. Then David and Ashley, with their passion for six years to bring the collection back to the Alamo, we had a little hard time to find the final shelter, who can accept the accommodation of the best, the selection of the Kim's Video of 55,000 titles. David and Ashley worked pretty hard to find us a new shelter owner. Luckily, Tim League, the Alamo, accepted it. Everything went pretty smooth and fast.

Kousha Navidar: Ashley and David, both of you, how does it feel for you to see this collection come back to New York City?

Ashley Sabin: I just want to give a shout out. Alex Ross Perry, Sean Price Williams, and Nick Prueher, they're going there tomorrow and organizing the collection, and they're volunteers. For me, it's incredible that people are spending their own time, and given the rents in New York City, volunteering, like who's heard of that, organizing the collection. People are engaging with it, and we continue to get emails from people that are into VHS, and there's a revival of that. It's a strange story in itself, and it's just even more strange, the ending, which I think we try to let the viewers ride that wave as we experienced it. It's incredible.

David Redmon: For me, as I said, we spent six years making that movie, and I went to Sicily to rent a movie. Finally, after six years, I get to rent my movie now at the Alamo Drafthouse. It's back.

Kousha Navidar: This might be a bit of a meta question, but as filmmakers, Ashley and David, you see this process of storing all these films. How would you want your filmography to be stored or memorialized?

David Redmon: I don't know if we should really get into that right now, but I would love for it to exist everywhere, in physical format, VHS, DVD, even a 16-millimeter print.

Ashley Sabin: I think what's really important for us in the outreach and screening of this film is that people are going to see it in the cinema. Not just to be precious about the film culture and how you're viewing it. More just let's keep the community aspect of what Kim's represented. Everyone going there, it's a meeting place. Everyone had a spot there. Let's keep that alive. For me, that's really important, is that people are continuing to go to the cinema, and then getting a coffee or a beer afterwards and talking, and having that human exchange.

Kousha Navidar: Well said. If you would like to see an example of what that looked like decades ago and the way that those movies continue to be valued by many people today, you can watch Kim's Video. It's a documentary about the iconic video rental store. We were joined by producer and directors Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, and the owner of Kim's Video, Mr. Yongman Kim. Thank you all three so much for joining us.

Ashley Sabin: Thank you.

David Redmon: Thanks for having us.

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