I’m thrilled to announce that the documentary Mom N’ Pop: The Indie Video Store Boom of the 80s/90s will be screening at this year’s Mad Monster Expo! Mom N’ Pop features interviews from the likes of Lloyd Kaufman, Damien Maffei, Brad Sykes, Henrique Couto, Donald Farmer, Tim Ritter, James Rolfe, and many more including video store owners past and present.

The doc’s director Bobby Canipe Jr. was kind enough to chat with me a little bit about filming Mom N’ Pop and what all we the viewers can expect from this chronicling in physical media history:

What was the inspiration for creating a documentary on independently owned video stores?

I’ve always been a huge fan of the video store, especially independent mom & pop style, because that’s where I went every weekend. Whether with my friends or my family, or just by myself.  As a movie fan, especially horror, and eventually a writer/director on films myself, it all started at the video store for me. It was an incredibly important part of my upbringing, and influenced who i am today.

One evening a little over a year ago, I saw a documentary called “The Last Blockbuster” on Netflix. I saw people talking about their love of the corporate chain, and while I understood the weekend video store/popcorn & candy memories, it didn’t exactly happen like that for myself, and many others. I grew up in the country, a small town called Vale, North Carolina, and there wasn’t a Blockbuster within 45 minutes or more of where I lived.

I didn’t even see a Blockbuster in real life until I was probably a teenager. I grew up around little gas stations that rented movies like Catsquare Superette and tanning places that had obscure flicks on one side, like Village Video in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Those were my memories, and many others had the same experiences. I wanted to make a documentary that talked about the weird/wacky things you saw at mom n pop shops and shed some light on the little guys that honestly would never get talked about if this documentary wasn’t made.

How does your relationship with Mom N’ Pop video stores differ from giants like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster?

Like I mentioned before, I didn’t have a Blockbuster anywhere remotely near me, but I consider myself lucky. I’m lucky because I lived surrounded by little mom n pop shops, gas stations, grocery stores, and tanning salons that had these crazy obscure vhs that you didn’t find at Blockbuster. Things like The Mutilator, 555, Lunch Meat, Cannibal Campout, Cannibal Hookers, etc. My love of films happened BECAUSE of mom n pop shops and I don’t believe I would have grown up to be the same person if not for these little video places.

In terms of locations, how far apart are the video stores featured in the doc and what was the process of choosing which stores to feature?

We were very fortunate in that we went all over the United States to cover  indie video stores and the people that loved them. We’ve been coast to coast and talked about mom n pop shops in North Carolina, all the way up to Maine, over to Chicago, and flew all the way to Los Angeles California. Lots of people in between also submitted their own stories and videos as well. We chose to talk about video stores that were held dear to people’s hearts and shed light on these little places that are now mainly out of business (spoiler alert, some are still open).

The list of interviewees featured in Mom N’ Pop are really cool! How did y’all go about reaching out to them in relativity to the narrative of the doc?

I have been in the filmmaking and VHS communities for a long time and I am lucky enough to know a lot of people with interests similar to mine. Lots of my friends either owned video stores before, worked at them, or heavily visited them. I reached out to them about their stories, which grew into more stories from different people and it definitely branched out from there. With celebrities, etc I tried to approach people that were significant in these mom n pop shops. People like Lloyd Kaufman whose company TROMA was very prevalent, along with the Toxic Avenger.

Then I talked with filmmakers that started the straight to video revolution of the 80s, people like Tim Ritter, Gary Cohen, Mark Polonia, and many more. This was a fun, and important time for them, so they were more than happy to share some incredible stories with us.

From the conception of the idea to completing the edit, how long of a journey was this documentary to complete?

I started planning all the filming and interviews and we officially hit the road and started in August of 2021. We shot interviews until our last interview was completed in the first quarter of this year, 2022. That’s when all the heavy editing began (shout out to Garrick, couldn’t have done it without you).

In regards to the crew that supported your vision, how did you go about putting the band together?

Originally I was going to do it all by myself, but quickly realized that wasn’t the smartest idea. Fortunately I was at my buddy Cagney Larkin’s house and he showed me his short film “Martel’s Movie Madness”. I was impressed with what I saw and  when Cagney reached out to me about 2 weeks later offering help on the documentary, I offered him the role of running the camera on this project.

I added my long time friend Tim Ashe to the crew as a Production Assistant and we hit the road. When I got to the editing phase, I was MASSIVELY overwhelmed with the insane amount of footage of interviews, video stores, and more that we had and enlisted my close friend Garrick Lane to the project to spearhead the editing. He’s an incredible editor and has taken the project to a whole new level.

Straight up, without Cagney, Tim, & Garrick, I couldn’t have done this project, especially to the level it has become.  Greatest small crew I could ever ask for.

What is the plan for distribution currently and how can the readers at home see this awesome documentary?  

My producer, Justin McDaniel, is going to be in charge of distribution plans and shopping it around. It will be released, we just don’t know who just yet. We had early backer copies available to snag on the indiegogo, both dvd and limited VHS, so backers that chose the physical perks will have those copies. I believe we are going to also do one last finishing funds campaign at the end of this month, to allow the purchase of some more dvd/VHS copies. A lot of people have reached out inquiring about a copy, so I want to ensure everyone that would like an early copy has the chance to snag one.

If you’re just as excited as I am to check out Mom N’ Pop, be sure to buy your ticket for Mad Monster Expo and witness this celebration of the video store with director Bobby Canipe Jr. at the show! In the meantime I highly encourage all our readers go to the Mom n Pop Facebook Page as well as the IMDb for more info on the cast & crew in addition to behind the scenes photos!