The Visions Collective. Left to right: Rayla Shawanda, Dan Cashman, Jesse Hassinger, Rachel Powers, Sarah De Araujo, Elle Longpre and George W. Myers.
Photo credit: Visions Video
NORTHAMPTON — Missing the magic, discovery and selection of browsing through the local video store, a new nonprofit, member-supported video store, Visions Video, is in the process of opening in downtown Northampton this spring. The project will revive a forgotten community space for the public and also build an expansive and unrivaled collection of film.
“We want to create a space where you can walk in and become immersed in film history,” said Elle Longpre, a founding member of Visions Video. “Classics, new releases, international cinema, documentaries, queer cinema – you’ll find films hand-selected by advisors, volunteers, a community wish list – a collection curated by our community, for our community, to experience the love of cinema in physical space, together.”
The current members behind Visions Video have made it clear this communal effort comes from a shared love of cinema and a desire to start a community space dedicated to sharing film in the region.
While the exact opening date is still up in the air, the hopes are for the new storefront to be open this spring at their 183 Main St. location in Downtown Northampton in the space next to the former Haymarket Café.
Visions Video has already launched a crowdfunding campaign to assist in raising the funds needed to open its doors. These funds, along with the membership fees, will help offset the costs of the first year of rent, insurance, utilities and facilities, and will contribute to an acquisitions budget for purchasing more essential films for the collection.
To get involved with the crowdfunding campaign visit fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/visions-video/campaigns/6600 and visit visionsvideo.org for more information about the collective’s efforts.
“Our goal for the crowdfunding campaign is relatively modest at $25,000, and I believe it will set us up for long term success,” said George William Myers, founding member.
Donations to the crowd-funding campaign are through Visions Video’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas and are tax deductible. Along with providing essential support to get the project off the ground, donors can get rewards such as tote bags, lifetime memberships, acknowledgment on the donor wall, and curating a selection of films.
Initially envisioned by Myers, programmer and former general manager of Amherst Cinema, and co-owner of the Quarters in Hadley, Visions Video is now operated by a small, collaborative volunteer board of committed individuals, who share a belief in the value of a space that strengthen the community through access to a large, diverse collection of films.
Myers added he found specific inspiration from Beyond Video in Baltimore which essentially have set up a model Visions Video will follow in creating this structure of a shared video space for the region.
“You could just feel the real love at the core of their operation there, so I really connected to that and felt in a pretty significant way that outside of the nostalgia that I think a lot of people assign to things they experience as children,” Myers said. “This relationship was very different with my thinking about the institution that we lost . In this instance its about what video stores in communities have meant for people and for me. It was a big part of how I interacted with the art form and that was not a solitary experience.”
Myers recalled being in his youth and collecting bounties of rentals with friends each week, usually looking for a group of movies under the same theme as he and others grew their film knowledge and appreciation.
“The point of that is the store itself was the function for us. It was a function of our relationship and the way we grew together and that also became part of the larger conversation. We got to know the clerks, look through the store and figure things out,” Myers said.
Visions Video will bring an exciting addition to the downtown Northampton ecosystem and a local brick-and-mortar alternative to streaming sites headquartered in distant time zones.
“The thing folks missed most about the passing of video stores was the loss of a social space – a place where we could congregate and talk with other sentient beings about, well, anything,” said former Pleasant Street Video impresario Bill Dwight. “You know, conversations. Civil discourse. Human interaction. The stuff of humanity.”
Myers added he remembers many of his video store experiences coming inside Pleasant Street Video and asking Dwight for recommendations in order to broaden his film watching experiences.
“There was much more intention and engagement with film and with the films that existed physically around it, and the people who were in those spaces,” Myers said.
With a vested interest in the local cultural and commercial ecosystem, Visions plans to bring access to film resources back to the community in an ever-growing fashion. Members will pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access to the collection with no per item fee and no late fees.
The store will open for rentals with 10,000 titles from community member donations and selective purchases to build the core of the collection. From that point on, the collection will continue to grow based on suggestions from advisory board members, community input and donations.
“Video stores have always been so much more than a place to rent movies,” said Jesse Hassinger. “They have been the center of communities where people gather to talk about life issues as well as why the most recent episode of ‘x’ was really great/terrible.”
Myers also spoke about the importance of maintaining physical media and of a communal library for film history in a current world where streamers grow more powerful by the minute. He said much of what he loves about his experience growing up and frequenting video stores has been eliminated by the nature of streaming platforms and the content they push.
“None of that happens now at all. In fact, when I’m on streaming services now, the selections have gotten worse, the prices have gone up and they’re crowded with their own content that is questionable and frequently I go to find the thing I want to watch and I end up having to rent it,” said Myers.
Longpre shared similar sentiments, adding she also remembers frequenting Pleasant Street Video and feeling like those visits served as an education in film for her.
“I’m a writer and part of the summers that I spent reading Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Hunter S. Thompson and learning how to write, I was also studying film and watching Scorsese. To me the two always went hand in hand. They’re just experiences into the human soul,” added Longpre.
Having community support for the future Visions Video also allows for support for these films to stay locally with a group such as Visions focused on film preservation and this shared experience.
“I want a place where we can gather and prattle on about films of every ilk, from ‘Barbie’ to ‘The Brutalist,’ from ‘Encino Man’ to the ‘Elephant Man’ or from ‘Dogma 95’ to MCU. And anything and everything in between,” said Dwight.
Longpre added, “Every time we pay a streaming service, we’re sending money away to California or wherever and it’s really important to have a library that’s being built by a community, and our advisors, and to have a stake in.”
The member-supported, volunteer run video store is currently in phase 1 of its plan but is eyeing a spring opening of the store. Myers added he hopes the community interest continues to grow on the effort leading to membership sign ups and that they can establish another foundational home for arts in Northampton.
“For me there’s a very real political dimension to this, that making films that are being excised or ignored actively or passively, making those available in our community as a resource, as something you can come and experience, is really, really central to why we’re here. It’s preserving that media in a way that is not going to be swept under the rug, or discarded or bought sold and replaced,” said Myers. “The goal here is to have the biggest and best libraries.”
For more information on donating, volunteering and joining as a member can be found at www.visionsvideo.org or by emailing info@visionsvideo.org.
