Kim's Video and Music was a video and music retail store in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

; the retailer was described as the "go-to place for rare selections," and was "widely known among the cognoscenti of new, experimental and esoteric music and film". At its peak, there were six locations around Manhattan. Its owner was Yongman Kim.

History

The store opened at the site of Kim's dry-cleaning business, and eventually moved to its own location on Avenue A in 1987, which eventually closed in 2004. It expanded to five other locations, including Mondo Kim's at 6 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, Kim's Underground at 144 Bleecker Street on Laguardia Place, Kim's West at 350 Bleecker Street & West 10th Street, and Kim's Mediapolis at 2906 Broadway. The last remaining location of Kim's Video & Music, located on 1st Avenue, announced its closure on April 21, 2014.

Mondo Kim's

Mondo Kim's at 6 St. Mark's Place was the most famous of the branch locations. Formerly, the building was the home of the New St. Marks Baths from 1913 to 1985. In June 2005, police raided Mondo Kim's, alleging they were selling bootlegs. It also to a lesser extent, also had a reputation for "ornery" and rude service. By 2008, Mondo Kim's had over 55,000 rental titles, many of which were rare or esoteric. In September of that year, Kim announced he would be closing Mondo Kim's and giving away the film collection to anyone who could fulfill certain criteria, stipulating that the entire collection was to be taken intact and that Kim's members would continue to have access to the collection wherever it resided. In December 2008, it was reported that the town of

Salemi Salemi is a town and ''comune'' in southwestern Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History Salemi is where Giuseppe Garibaldi anno ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

had made a successful bid for the collection, as part of a village restoration effort. In 2012, a

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

article entitled "The Strange Fate of Kim's Video" reported that the collection, though remaining intact, had essentially disappeared from public view after arriving in Salemi, and that the initiatives promised by Kim and the government of Salemi remained unfulfilled.

Documentary

On April 1, 2022, filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, with assistance from Yongman Kim and

Tim League Tim League is an American entrepreneur and film producer based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain and the founder of Drafthouse Films, a film distribution company, where he produced '' The ABCs of Death'' a ...

, brought the Kim's Video St. Mark’s Place movie collection back to New York City, after 12 years of being stored in Salemi. Redmon and Sabin chronicled this in their 2023 movie '' Kim's Video''. Kim's Video & Music was relaunched as Kim's Video Underground with the help of the

Alamo Drafthouse The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the film, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

theater chain. The new store is located in the lobby of Alamo's Lower Manhattan location in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

. The store also now offers 5-day rentals for free.

Notable employees

Kim's was known for its staff,The Story of Kim’s Video & Music, Told By Its Clerks and Customers.
''Bedford and Bowery.''O'Connor, Brendan
Who Killed Kim's Video?
The Awl. who were described by

The Awl ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former ''Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk ...

as "legendarily knowledgeable and haughty." Some of its employees later went on to successful careers in film, music, and the arts. *

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, actress, writer * Dawn Eden Goldstein, writer * Robert Greene, documentary filmmaker * Albert Hammond Jr., musician, member of

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, director, screenwriter *

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, director, producer, screenwriter * Dylan Kidd, director, screenwriter *

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, musician, member of

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, actressTinkham, Chris
Kate Lyn Sheil's Video Past and Netflix Future.
''Interview''. *Chris Vanderloo, founder of

Other Music Other Music was a music retail store that sold CDs, records, and cassettes online and at their brick-and-mortar location in the Noho neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The store specialized in the sale of closely curated underground ...

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, cinematographer * Andrew W.K., musician *

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, filmmaker * Eric Copeland, musician and member of

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Michael M. Bilandic Michael M. Bilandic is an American film director, writer and producer, best known for his gritty New York City based microbudget comedies ''Hellaware'', ''Jobe'z World'' and ''Project Space 13 '' (2021). He is a frequent collaborator of the direc ...

, filmmaker * Jacqueline Castel, filmmaker *

Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born December 19, 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with J Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previou ...

, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic at

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

*Chris Ryan, editorial director at The Ringer *Kat Toledo, comedian and filmmaker *Ben Apatoff,

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

author *Jody Avirgan, podcast host and producer *Brian Turner, former

WFMU WFMU (91.1 MHz) is a non-commercial educational station, non-commercial, listener-supported, independent radio, independent community radio station city of license, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey, with studios in Jersey City. It is owned by ...

music and program director and DJ

References

External links