By David Dent
In a world where streaming services are fast becoming the most popular way to watch – and own – films, here’s a documentary which makes a very strong case for the maintenance of physical media in our lives.
Beginning with a whistle stop tour of the evolution of the physical artefact as a medium to watch movies – from VHS to Laserdisc to DVD and then Blu Ray – ‘Boutique: To Preserve and Collect’ notes that the history of formats has always seen a division between the major companies and smaller niche outfits; while the majors, for economic reasons as much as anything, became increasingly less interested in providing additional content on their films, boutique companies like Severin and Vinegar Syndrome (whose work is heavily featured, this being a US documentary) made it their mission to embellish their releases with commentaries and perspectives from writers and intellectuals working in the field (one contributor boldly confesses that she freely uses the content from directors’ commentaries in her writing, a fact not generally acknowledged by the critical community).
The documentary details the often painstaking process of sourcing prints for obscure movies from abandoned warehouses and combining content from different releases to achieve the definitive version of any one film. This is clearly a labour of love for the label owners, but also provides the opportunity for a whole breed of new writers and critics to come on board and celebrate the genre they love. An added bonus is that directors of these films, some of whom thought their movies would never see the light of day again and could ill afford any publicity for them at the time, get to see their life’s work handsomely packaged for the first time.
Away from horror and exploitation content, ‘Boutique: To Preserve and Collect’ also covers the growth of boutique labels releasing queer and transgressive titles; the documentary sees all these companies as “doing God’s work” in keeping the flame of physical media alive and ensuring that such items are not lost, in an era seeing vast numbers of titles going missing from the catalogues of the major streaming companies. It’s a fascinating film full of passionate people doing an amazing job.
Bloody Flicks 