Black Lodge Video

This bizarre experiment respectfully titled Black Lodge Video was birthed in the last days of october 2000, in Midtown Memphis, TN. We opened our doors with around 6,000 films. Films that started out many years prior as an all encompassing personal video collection, collected by two 26 year old(at the time of opening) cinephilejunkyfreaks, Matt M. and Bryan H.(your humble narrator & site caretaker). With a selection that covered just about every genre, time period, and style of film making, Black Lodge was born into the dark and soulless video rental world of memphis.+++++ Having lived in memphis most our lives, through the years we've watched as 95% of the independently owned video stores were getting the shit kicked out of them by Blockbuster Video. All the video stores we had known and loved from the eighties/early ninties were shutting down left and right. remember O'Keeffe Video? Video Magic? Rent a Flick? Channel 4 Video? all run out of business by a company that could give two fucks about film, it's history, or the quality of their selection. they could be selling toasters as far as they're concerned. So, to say the least, the film selection of memphis was lacking for many years.+++++ We never intended on creating a store when we first started collecting films in the late eighties. Shit, we were still in high school at the time, and it became easier to buy movies when they started to be priced to own. So it seemed logical to just buy the things we knew we'd watch a lot(looking back though, the thought of paying $25 for a vhs copy of Animal House seems ludicrous, even though i still have it and still plays fine). We mostly started out buying horror and comedy, and over the years as our cinema tastes began to expand, so did our collections.+++++ Another important factor in Black Lodge's creation was the town Columbia, Missouri where we lived for several years. Being a pretty hip college town at the time(early/mid 90's) they had a lot to offer that could never be found in memphis. they had two video stores for instance that would(not to sound cliche) change our lives forever, 9th Street Video and Big Lizard. 9th Street(which still exists) primarily specialized in foreign, classic and modern american drama, and art house films new and old. Big Lizard was the other end of the spectrum. They dealt in underground films and directors(domestic and foreign), weirdo and rare horror, and all sorts of oddities we never dreamt were out there. Big Lizard unfortunatly would close in '95, but we were able to buy several titles from them which now live on in the Lodge.+++++Now, in the year 2008, we have over 10,000 videos and over 8,000 dvds that cover just about every aspect of film since it's creation. We organize by country, genre, director, and themes. There's really no type of film we won't give a chance, so we've got a little bit of everything. Our entire collection is all hand picked and pretty thorough...and yes, nostalgia does play a big part in some of it.+++++We specialize in foreign, underground film/directors, cult films/directors, american and world classics, forgotten titles of old, and everything else in-between. We do get some new releases but are very selective about what we bring into the collective. By no means are we the be all end all, but we're not a bad fuckin' start.... Black Lodge Video---831 S. Cooper---Midtown- Memphis,TN Get Your Own! | View Slideshow