Rewind This! (2013)

Rewind This!: Directed by Josh Johnson. With Ben Jousan, David Gregory, Micah Matthews, Mike Vraney. Home video changed the world. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. This film traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of society that were altered by the creation of videotape.

“Oh the good olu0026#39; days of VHS. Yes, I wore my Disney videos down til they were just a fuzzy haze of grainy musical colours like everyone else, but my real relationship with cassettes comes from recorded movies from the TV guides. When I was first getting into film, I began my catchup with a big list of modern essentials such as Fight Club, Goodfellas, Full Metal Jacket, American Beauty, Pulp Fiction, all of which I watched and rewatched on video tape until I knew exactly where the advert breaks would come. Thatu0026#39;s essentially why I do what I do today. I never collected VHS like the subjects of this documentary, but ever since I got into DVD collecting, Iu0026#39;ve been manic. Blu-rays, books, vinyls, I collect u0026#39;em all. Although VHS is more or less useless these days (I remember the moment my player just decided to stop working, it was very irritating), I can definitely relate to the people in the film who scourer car boot sales obsessively for rarities.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRewind This! is a nostalgic reminder of why VHS deserved to be the best of their kind at the time. Itu0026#39;s the same reason I like vinyl. They have a u0026#39;lived-inu0026#39; quality we canu0026#39;t get from the polish of blu-ray. Little imperfections that are part of its unique identity where theyu0026#39;ve been over- paused and subsequently scarred with snowy lines of distortion. Although thereu0026#39;s an almost Not Quite Hollywood focus on horror and porn as far as the u0026#39;hidden gemsu0026#39; go, itu0026#39;s a very interesting documentary. The film itself is well done, but admittedly, the industry professionals are far more interesting than the caricature hipsters who just really like videos. Definitely some colourful characters there on both sides. It does lack structure and its 8-bit music gives it an unwarranted sense of urgency that can be distracting, but it makes great use of cutaway footage from the video footage the subjects talk about. Thereu0026#39;s a great charm about its flaws and that kind of reflects its points about the authenticity and naivety on VHS. Worth watching.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e7/10”