Damn The Man. Save The Empire.
For Scarecrow Video
ABOUT THE WRITER
Jake Gallo, aka Strong Knotz, is the host of Video Psychosis. a film podcast based out of Olympia, WA, where he currently lives. He regularly hosts and curates hard-to-find film viewings, and is a keystone member of the greater Thurston County film community.
It's a frightening time right now if you care about cinema. David Lynch can't secure funding for his next feature. The streaming giants have picked up where COVID left off and helped kill over 2000 movie theaters just in the last four years. David Zaslav seems intent on running Turner Classic Movies into the ground. We have "film historians" like [REDACTED] doing Wikipedia research for professional liner notes and getting paid for it. Most major retailers (with the exception of possibly the worst, Wal-Mart) have entirely phased out their physical media and no longer sell DVDs, Blu-Ray or 4K discs. Forgive me for going all Walter Matthau here but it looks like we're currently living in a world that's progressively leaning harder into a stance against art and an open embrace of content. Despite that, as Brad and Janet once sang, "there's a light in the darkness of everybody's life." For 36 years so far, Seattle's truly iconic Scarecrow Video has provided that beacon for film lovers with an extraordinary collection that's burgeoned over the decades from a mere 50 to now almost 150,000 titles. Their Movie Guide book is an invaluable resource to anyone perpetually hunting for the next unknown filmic thrill. October wouldn't be the same without their annual Halloween viewing challenge. Where else can you visit that has a massive cardboard standee of Roger Vadim's astounding (and still woefully unreleased) BLOOD AND ROSES?
But Scarecrow is currently in a tight spot, even riskier than the one they braved in 2014 when the store raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter to stay afloat. Now this beloved Movie Mecca is in urgent need of $1.8 million and all it takes is a quick poke through any related Facebook comments section to see just how shockingly obtuse a vast swath of the responses have been to their dilemma. As native Olympian filmmaker Augustine Dalton astutely observed in a recent interview for this very publication, we are living "in a world that's daily hemorrhaging empathy and curiosity."
Why is physical media important? Why is Scarecrow Video important? In a time where so much is readily available at the click of a button for the indiscriminate viewer there are thousands upon thousands of films that have fallen through the cracks or been forgotten over time. There are a plethora of reasons for this: bad reviews, inadequate distribution, or just a plain old lack of awareness being a few. Websites like Letterboxd have become a treasure map for the adventurous moviegoer in discovering these golden nuggets but the internet can only guide one so far in finding a majority of them to watch. This is where Scarecrow enters the picture (pun very much intended) as a sort of spritely sage to the inquisitive. Are you seeking something popular but sadly out of print like 28 DAYS LATER or SLC PUNK? They've got it.
Can't find the late 90s Jackie Chan actioner WHO AM I? on any streaming site and you're opposed to piracy? It's on their shelf. Maybe you're digging deeper for something obscure like Chris Gore's 1986 video mixtape CATHODE FUCK or looking for local independent artists to support such as John Portanova (VALLEY OF THE SASQUATCH) or Ryan Strunk (STALL). Scarecrow proudly stocks them all!
To be a member (or even just a visitor) of their fine institution is to inhabit the role of the idiomatic kid in a candy store. Whether you demand the exhilarating escapism of a trashy Antonio Margheriti joint or the political complexity of Costa-Gavras they've got you covered. Famous and beloved industry folk from Quentin Tarantino to John Woo have sung the praises of their impressive efforts over the years. And it can all go away on the drop of a pin. There have been some beautiful underdog stories of death and rebirth over the last few years, the kind befitting a feel-good studio picture, like the legendary Kim's Video reopening through Alamo Drafthouse after a colossal goatfuck in Italy where the unprotected archive nearly molded away or Atlanta's Tara Theater shuttering its doors only to be resurrected in the last several months by the owners of the historic Plaza Theater. But these happy endings are few and far between despite the blood, sweat and tears involved in keeping something precious alive. Let's hope it doesn't come to that point.
Donate if you can. If you don't have the money to spare then spread the word so we can get as many eyes on this problem as possible. Talk to filmmaker friends on social media and convince them to share the word. Sign up for their mail rental service available even outside the perimeter of Seattle. I finally bit the bullet and got one myself. There's a copy of OZARK SAVAGE, REEFER MADNESS II: THE TRUE STORY, THE BLACK CRYSTAL and THE WOODEN GUN coming my way very soon. I hope they make it long enough for me to rent 400 more. There will always be corporations and churches around to take your hard earned money but there is only one Scarecrow Video.
Damn The Man. Save the Empire.
You can donate to help rescue Scarecrow Video from closing here:
https://scarecrowvideo.org/sos