East Village residents can say “Arrivederci!” to another neighborhood institution. The beloved movie shop Kim’s Video will soon shut down its rental service on St. Marks Place and ship the store’s 55,000-title film collection to a new far-flung home – in Italy.
And it’s been given away for free.
For owner Yongman Kim, losing his video collection marks the end of an era. “I think my passion in loving film to share and introduce to New Yorkers is no longer valid,”he told the Daily News via e-mail. Kim cited the “so-called Internet revolution”as one cause of the store’s demise. Online rental services like Netflix hurt business, and Kim also blames digital distractions like e-mail and YouTube – activities he says occupy the time people once spent watching movies at home.
Kim made a public offer in early September to donate his film collection for free, as long as the new owner kept the library intact and had 3,000 square feet to house the thousands of films.
Kim went with a bid from Salemi Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi – a former TV talk show host described as “one of the oddest and most colorful figures in contemporary Italy, by the British newspaper, The Independent – who’s trying to revitalize his poverty-stricken town.
“I now do not want to fight against the new stream,”Kim said. “I just want to disappear calmly.”
I am surprised no one in NYC had the smarts or civic concern to reach out and acquire the collection for posterity. The city is, after all, one of the world-class centers for the development of cinema production.
Can’t wait to hear the MPAA suing the former owner over trade export fees.
I am surprised no one in NYC had the smarts or civic concern to reach out and acquire the collection for posterity. The city is, after all, one of the world-class centers for the development of cinema production.
Yeah. I love New York too. And, I live here. But, after watching CBGB go away despite NYC being one of the birthplaces of punk rock*, why should this surprise anyone?
* Velvet Underground in NYC and Iggy Pop in Detroit started punk long before it went over to London to come back when the U.S. was ready for it.
I think we should give him a bailout. We are US citizens – How can we allow a company with an outdated business model to close it’s doors. Think of all the jobs that will be lost if we let the video store industry to go out of business. (shh – no one mention that companies like Netflix and new media companies are creating jobs)