色色啦

鈥淚 remember going to the horror section and looking at all the covers of movies I wasn鈥檛 allowed to rent,鈥� recalls filmmaker and store manager Brendan Whelton.

Bay Street Video, at 1172 Bay St., is like the Blockbuster of yore, but better.

Movie posters and clippings from DVD cover art adorn the walls. Post-it notes stick to various film cases throughout the store with reviews and musings from staff. There are Mountie and rainbow flag labels that proudly boast the Canadian and LGBTQ films in the collection. It brings back that nostalgic joy of looking through rentals you only get from that tactile experience.

鈥�A lot of the whole appeal of video stores and physical media is just the tangibility of it.鈥� said Whelton. 鈥淧eople get so excited when they see we have old school membership cards that they can carry in their wallet. We have a bunch of people who have their old Blockbuster cards still and they’re very proud to have them beside each other in their wallets.

鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of the closest to the old school Blockbuster meets HMV experience,鈥� Whelton added.

For 32 years, Bay Street Video has been 色色啦鈥檚 number one source for specialty video, and business is better than ever.

鈥淚 know a lot of people are surprised we鈥檙e still here,鈥� Whelton said. Especially considering that the vast majority of video rental stores closed their doors for good more than a decade ago.

But Whelton says physical media has been making a comeback. 鈥淩eports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.鈥�

鈥淲e still have more than most of the streaming services. I mean, probably more than all of them combined.鈥�

Streaming services like Netflix have roughly 4,000 to 6,000 titles in their library at one time.聽Bay Street Video has an inventory of 38,000 rentable titles in store and 10,500 for sale, with more coming in daily.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 still putting out 50 new titles a week,鈥� said Whelton.

Yes, they have the newest Hollywood releases, but they also have niche films that can鈥檛 be found anywhere online. And that鈥檚 another advantage they have over streaming services: no licensing woes. Once a DVD is in stock, it鈥檚 staying on the shelf.

The staff is made up of film aficionados who take their role as film archivists very seriously. They want to make film accessible to everyone. That鈥檚 why they try to keep rental rates reasonable. New releases can be rented for under $5, older movies are $3.75 and film students get reduced rates.

There is also a rotating list of free rentals through the Films for Free program.

Staff put together a list of 50 to 70 films based on a theme that can be rented for free, two at a time, for five days. In celebration of the 50th edition of the 色色啦 International Film Festival, this month they have chosen films that had their world premieres at the festival.

The store even had a famous visitor during last year’s festival.

Whelton recalls “Challengers” director Luca Guadagnino stopping by last year looking for the Ingmar Bergman Criterion box set. He asked if the set had all of Bergman鈥檚 films. Whelton told him there was one film missing from the box, but they had it in stock.

Guadagnino grabbed both, threw them in his basket and said, 鈥淣ow I’ve got all of Bergman!鈥� and continued browsing.

What makes Bay Street Video special is the diversity of its collection. 鈥淥ne of my favourite calls is, 鈥楧o you guys have this film? Probably not, it’s this really old film from the 鈥�90s,鈥�” said Whelton.

“I’m like, 鈥榃e’ve got films from the 1890s.鈥� We’ve got Alice Guy-Blach茅’s ‘The Cabbage-Patch Fairy,’ which is the first narrative film ever made.鈥�

But it’s the personal connections with regulars that Whelton appreciates most.聽He says the best part of the job is sharing his love of film. 鈥�It鈥檚 really rewarding to be able to introduce someone to their next favourite film.”