''Rewind This!'' is a 2013

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Josh Johnson about the impact of

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

on the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

and

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

, as well as about collectors of

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...

Interviewees

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; ; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian Canadians, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with ''Exotica (film), Exotica ...

Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of acclaimed anime films, including ''Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer'' (1984), ''Angel's Egg'' (1985), '' ...

Frank Henenlotter Frank Henenlotter (born August 29, 1950) is an American film director, screenwriter and film historian. He is known primarily for directing horror comedies, especially '' Basket Case'' (1982), ''Brain Damage'' (1988), and '' Frankenhooker'' (199 ...

* Roy Frumkes *

Charles Band Charles Robert Band (born December 27, 1951) is an American film producer and director, known for his work on horror comedy movies. Career Band entered film production in the 1970s with Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributo ...

Cassandra Peterson Cassandra Gay Peterson (born September 17, 1951) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage pers ...

* Jason Eisener *

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their featu ...

* Drew McWeeny * Peter Rowe *

David Schmoeller David Schmoeller (born December 8, 1947) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is notable for directing several full-length theatrical horror films including ''Tourist Trap (film), Tourist Trap'' (1979), ''The Seduction (fi ...

* Ben Steinbauer

Release

The documentary screened at numerous

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

around the world, including

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both s ...

, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival,

Fantasia International Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival, also known as Fantasia Fest or simply Fantasia, is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on fantasy, horror, sci-fi and cult genre films. Regular ...

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venic ...

, Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival, Telluride Horror Show,

Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...

, Orlando Film Festival, and several others.

Reception

The documentary was received with critical acclaim. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

it has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 21 critics. The site's critics consensus read, "An ode to abandoned technology with some admirably wide-ranging insights, ''Rewind This!'' is entertaining viewing even for those who didn't live through the VHS era." Writing in

Twitch Film ScreenAnarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

, J. Hurtado praised the film for being more than just about the collectors, as the filmmakers, "managed to distill the experience down to its most potent ingredients and leave the audience with a highly satisfying straight shot of movie love." Jacob S. Hall named the documentary one of the Top 10 Movies Discovered at SXSW 2013 on Movies.com, writing that "the film finds the perfect mixture of nostalgia and forward thinking, acknowledging the past while taking a bold look at what a world free of physical media will look like." ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called the film, "an entertaining, sometimes enlightening history of the video format; though unsurprisingly small-screen friendly, it will be a crowd-pleaser at fests and in niche bookings." A review from the Telluride Horror Show noted: "An unbending passion of cinema appreciation pours excitedly from Johnson's interview subjects, and there is a prevailing sense of humor that permits the subject to never take itself too seriously."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 2395970 *
Rewind This!
' at

TV Tropes TV Tropes (also written as TVTropes) is a wiki founded by "Fast Eddie" in 2004 that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, which it refers to as tropes. Its contents cover many creative works and non- ...

2013 films 2013 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about films VHS 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films

Interviewees

Release

Reception

See also

References

External links