Survival of the Film Freaks

Very few documentary films engage with me on a personal level. I have not had the experience of anticipating what might be the next topic or era of time discussed eagerly before. With documentaries I tend to view them clinically to simply gain the information they are conveying. I have never found myself wanting to find a missing piece or overlooked moment to prove something to myself about my own passion on a subject while watching a documentary until now. Every time I thought about a topic that would probably not be mentioned, even something so trivial as a lost video format, it was brought up right as the thought occurred, and expanded on with the same enthusiastic joy from those interviews as I myself have.

I have watched many documentaries on cult films, exploitation films, and other movies that were often dismissed and maligned. Those docs have all championed the films, the hey day they existed in, and the makers behind the scenes. Survival of the Film Freaks is about those of us who traded tapes, spent a fortune on a doomed video format, fought tooth and nail for that rare out of print DVD or Blu Ray, and even stooped to sourcing torrents when there where no other means to find a film all for the love of watching movies.

Besides connecting with this film on such a personal level, it tells the narrative of how the evolution of viewing formats changed the way we consume entertainment expertly and enthusiastically. It is a terrific independent documentary that all film fanatics and physical media collectors should check out.