July 29, 2005
Notes from the VSDA Show
I just got back from VSDA in Las Vegas, which is a big convention for home video retailers, wholesalers and distributors, and if any of you attended and wandered up to the Ryko booth, you probably saw me. I had a great time talking with folks about the Pang Brothers and D2B, as well as the upcoming releases Sex & Fury and Female Yakuza Tale, and November’s Pinky Violence Collection box set.
I was genuinely surprised that there were so many people who were just as enthusiastic about these films as I and it makes me feel even better about doing what I do. In addition to hanging with the Ryko staff, I got to spend some quality time with some other really great people who have established their own video labels: Michele DeAngelis & Joyce Shen from No Shame Films (who I used to work with at Blue Underground); Norman Hill from Subversive Cinema (who worked on many of the same titles that I did at Anchor Bay); and new friend Alex Afterman from Heretic Films. All of us are cooperating to change the face of home video by providing an alternative to the stale product the big studios have been pushing on us for years, so if you aren’t familiar with these labels, do yourself a favor and check them out. We even have a slogan:
Cult Movies Are The New Rock N’ Roll!
