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"CINEMAGIA: THE HISTORY OF SÃO PAULO'S VIDEO STORES"
I don't know, I've never went to a video store...
with the intention of renting something I wanted.
But it's always been present in my childhood.
Someone was always bringing us some rented video tape...
for us to watch.
There was a video store right next to my house.
But it went out of business because nobody would go there.
I would go there sometimes, but I never needed anything...
because there was internet.
Nowadays it's so easy to just download a movie...
watch it, delete it.
If you want to watch it again, you just download it again.
So I don't know. I feel like in some ways...
I think it makes it convenient for the cinephile...
because they can watch a lot of movies.
But I also think we lose the romantic aspect of grabbing a DVD box...
that is a physical object, with which you can have a bond.
It's more complicated, but it makes you have...
a deeper connection with that work.
To tell this story we need to travel back in time.
We need to go way back to 1976...
so we can start with a beautiful story that is full of victories.
And the person who was the pioneer, the mind behind it...
and who was the father of this whole business...
which is Adelino dos Santos Abreu.
Nobody knows him by this name. He's Ghaba.
THE PIONEERS
I was going to graduate school...
when I was given my first Super 8 camera.
It was at the time when I went to the native Indian tribe of the Xavantes.
So I got to film a lot of their activities.
I just didn't know the basics about cinema. I didn't know.
So I applied for a course called GRIFE...
which meant "Group of Independent Super 8 Filmmakers".
So I joined and followed that course...
because it was the only course available outside of a university.
Then I read an article somewhere that there was another filmmaker...
another person who had been with the Xavantes in another tribe...
Pimentel Barbosa, who had done a documentary.
And as I came back with a passion for the native Indians...
since they are so lovable, I said:
Who is this other person who also had contact with the native Indians?".
I said: "My god, something in common...
somebody whom I can talk to about the Xavantes".
Adelino dos Santos Abreu.
Ghaba is like this: He went to a school that nobody knew.
And there's a fruit called gabiroba.
Everybody heard about this fruit, but not everyone knows it.
So that's how he got gabiroba as a nickname.
Because he was somewhat unknown. A stranger among all those other kids.
So "Gabiroba" stuck with him.
Since gabiroba is too long, they used Ghaba.
So one day on my way out of GRIFE...
I remember someone walking by me as I'm was leaving.
Then maybe two or three days later he calls me. I said:
Are you Adelino? Ah that's great, thanks god I'm gonna meet you...
to talk about the Xavantes".
Then he came to my house to watch the footage I had...
and together we made the movie.
We started working with video production.
At the time Ghaba had a company called Disk Filmes.
We started working with production of Super 8 movies...
and then went on to other types of video.
Videos for institutions and training.
Many times when we would put together budgets for jobs.
Before anything he would say: "No, let's just charge them 'X'".
Then I'd say: "Ghaba, things are not like that. 'X'".
Then I'd work on the budget, and the amount would end up being...
whatever he had proposed earlier.
He said: "Even though I told you before...
you had to do all these calculations to reach the same conclusion".
He was very intuitive, he would sense things with precision.
He knew people everywhere. He wouldn't stop.
He would go to Santa lfigênia street and knew all the shops...
was friends with everybody. He used to dabble in everything.
That's how he knew what was going on.
I had a friend who had a little store called "Estudio Z"...
his name was Zilto Freitas. He used to import video cassette players.
My clients had video tapes... would travel and bring tapes...
so they wanted video cassette players, then I'd buy them from him...
and sell them to my friends.
That's how the video club got started.
You'd come overwith two tapes, fill out a form, and become a member.
I think I had about 3 thousand members, 4 thousand associates.
In Brazil we had about 32 thousand associates.
And to control the flow of tapes coming in and out...
I developed a board with timecards. I came up with that idea.
So a member would grab a movie card from the board on the wall...
then they'd hand it to the receptionist...
and the receptionist would go grab the tape in our archive.
That's how we got it started.
So we noticed that we weren't getting enough orders...
for the type of video production we were doing. So Ghaba said:
"I feel like the market needs to be able to bring the movie home".
He said: "It's one thing to go to the movie theater...
where there's all that magic you feel around you...
and there's that big screen". But then he said:
But people also feel the need to bring the movie home".
There was a video club. Ghaba said:
Let's put together a video store then".
OMNI was never a video club.
OMNI started as a video rental store.
The term "locadora" (video rental store)...
comes from Ghaba. It didn't exist back then.
I don't wanna have a video club. I wanna rent movies.
That's what I do. Why would I say otherwise?"
And that's how the video store started.
OMNI video rental store.
That's it, it's commercial, it's to make money...
and that's the path I'm gonna follow".
We didn't have any legislation about it, there was nothing.
The movies had to come from abroad.
Bringing movies from abroad meant smuggling.
There was no other way but to smuggle.
If you wanted to own movies here in Brazil in cassette tapes, in VHS...
you had to bring them from abroad. Ghaba's idea was to advertise:
We have a vast collection of movies".
We didn't have anything. We had two movies.
He said: "There's no problem".
I said: "But Ghaba, how can we advertise we have a bunch of movies...
if we only have two tapes, I think". We had one or two.
He said: "Relax. I'll come up with something. I got this".
It stated at my house, in the drawer of some furniture I had.
It fit the entire video store in a drawer...
so you can see how we had nothing.
So he put out an ad with my phone number.
People would call and I'd say: "Oh, how are you?
We have a big collection".
Do you have a movie bythe name 'X'?" Then I'd say:
Give me just a minute, I'm gonna check our stock...
to see whether this movie is here or has been rented."
Rented? Ghaba didn't have the movie...
So I'd hang up and call Ghaba right away:
Ghaba, they want the movie 'X'". He'd go after it immediately...
and I have no idea how he figured it out.
He would either buy it from somebody or... I don't know.
But he'd show up with the movie. Then I'd call back:
Yeah, yeah, this movie is back in stock...
you can come pick it up".
So customers would come to my house to rent movies.
Then my husband said: "Listen, that's enough, no?
People coming in and out. What's up with this?
This is a house, not a business."
I said: "Hang in there, we're gonna figure something out".
We rented an apartment at Faria Lima Avenue.
In his bedroom he had OMNI Video.
In the living room people would pick up movies and sit down.
Only close friends were allowed in the bedroom.
But it was all inside his bedroom.
On top of a shelf with some bricks and boards...
and in between them some movies.
Because in the beginning it was like that.
First a friend, then a friend of the friend...
and it's started getting serious.
Suddenly there's a business owner coming in.
We'd get evicted, right?
Imagine, it was a residencial apartment building.
There were two old ladies who lived across from us...
and they were horrified. They'd say:
What is this? They ring the bell, some guy comes in...
they ring the bell again, some woman comes in.
What is going on there?"
So really, we had to make a decision.
So my rational side would kick in, saying:
Ghaba, not here. We can't do this here.
You have a residential contract. We have to move to an office building".
He did some research in the region.
There was something above the Sudameris bank...
which at the time was a commercial building.
So he said: "Ah, I like this name. I'm gonna call it OMNI".
I said: "Ghaba, OMNI? It's not easy to pronounce".
He said: "I think it will work out". He liked it and it worked.
People ended up knowing how to pronounce the word OMNI.
The first time I walked in I was fascinated with all that.
I said: "I want this. I have to do something to achieve this".
Because I felt part of that context.
When I saw the atmosphere, it was like...
you know the type ofjob you would love...
that you would do with passion, that you would do everything...
to get to work with what you like.
So it was really that moment, it was like a click, you know?
I said: "This is what I want to do".
I used to work in a bank, in the years before the 2001 store.
I was in a bank for 12 years.
My environment, the region with my social contacts, was at Paulista Avenue.
Because that's where the banks are. It was almost in front of MASP museum.
You know, we used to talk about it...
how the location had a big impact.
And Ghaba had a movie, that I couldn't stand watching anymore...
because whenever someone would come over he'd put it on.
It was "2001: A Space Odyssey". And Ghaba said:
Call it 2001. 2001 is cool, because it sounds futuristic".
I opened the 2001 video store with his help.
Without him I wouldn't have done it. That's a fact.
I opened with 200 movies, which I got with the money...
from the settlement with the bank. It was an investment...
I made, hard work of almost 15 years.
I believed, I was sure of it, that I had to go through this experience.
It was a new thing.
So people would come in and say: "What is this?".
I'd teach them: "this will give you possibilities...
possibility of doing this at home, which can help socialize...
so you can bring your friends over".
I was fascinated with spreading that new product.
Which is what I did all my life.
That was my main function at 2001, it was precisely that.
The TV was all we had. Nothing else.
The few channels there were, would shut down around 10:30 - 11PM.
There were no new movies.
Maybe when the TV was getting better they'd have one a month...
after it played in the movie theaters for five years.
I decided to change my life a little bit and moved to the USA.
Moved for good. I got there and it was a bit difficult.
From Brazil? What are you doing here?".
So I stayed for a month, it didn't work out...
so the only thing I was able to do was to buy some stuff and come back.
Instead of coming back with nothing...
I thought I should bring some new stuff I had found in the US.
One of the new things that was a big hit was the video cassette player.
Then people started asking for movies. And I brought movies.
I started to distribute them to my clients...
but after 15 to 20 days they had seen it enough...
didn't want it anymore, and wanted another movie.
I started taking the movies back and lending to somebody else...
and so on... So everybody could watch.
We started some sort of a club. Real Video Club.
Needed to find a location nearby because I lived at Mooca.
It wouldn't make sense to open something in Jardins...
because OMNI is already there, so I did it in the suburb...
and came to the East Zone.
I was the first to open a video rental store...
that would also stay open on Saturdays and Sundays.
They said I was crazy.
I remember there was a meeting with the competing video stores...
and they were all mad at me, saying I was spoiling the market...
complaining about my prices... And he opens even on Sundays?
Who is gonna rent movies on Sundays?
That's when Silvio Santos TV Show is on...
so nobody goes out shopping. You're crazy, right?"
I didn't think so. And really, as the years went by...
Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days at the store.
That's when we should be open.
Honey, it's Real Video!
- They have home delivery! - Late like this!?
Of course, Real Video is open until 10PM.
Hi Honey! Ah, I was just getting some tapes.
On Sunday?
Of course, Real Video is open everyday and there's always a store near us.
The biggest video rental store of the city has to be the best.
The plan was to get 200 members in a year.
We got 200 in less than a month.
A lot of people coming in, really. I wasn't ready.
MAGNETIC DREAMS
Home video started, which was a big hit.
Brought happiness to those who loved cinema...
and wanted to watch movies at home.
And new small video stores started popping up.
And some like OMNI Video, and Audio, they had original tapes...
with no subtitles. But people rented them anyway.
The possibility of cinema at home, which at the time...
you had to watch movies on TV on specific times, with lots of ads.
The scream of independence came with videos cassete players...
for those who wanted to watch movies anytime with whoever they want.
It was a milestone.
So I started to research. What is this?
Then I found Betamax, VHS.
The research I did to decide whether I'd buy a VHS or a Betamax player.
I think it took me six months.
But when I found this new fascinating world...
where I could watch movies anytime at home...
then I created a second list. Because since I was a kid...
since I was 10, I had been listed every single movie...
I watched in the theaters with my ratings and observations.
So I started a second list. The list for VHS.
I wanted to distinguish what I saw in the theater...
from what I saw at home because it's a different experience.
The chemistry is different.
So at that time I got a VHS player and went through 200 movies all at once.
Just so you have an idea, I was on vacation...
and bought is on a Monday. By Sunday night I had seen 88 movies.
Movies I had already watched, some new releases movies...
I had never seen before. It was wonderful. I said:
This is so cool! I'm at home watching movies".
We lived in a country where most movies wouldn't come to.
Somewhat because of censorship, but it wasn't just that.
It was also because the cinema industry...
was going through a period of transformation.
We didn't have the chance to see a lot of stuff.
And suddenly home video was our dream.
We wanted home video all our lives.
Imagine having at home a movie you always dreamt about...
and never had the chance to see.
It was this big "boom"! A boom in the market.
It was the beginning and video stores were popping up.
Without exaggerating it was one in every corner.
They had found a way to make money quick.
It was a new thing and everybody wanted to watch movies at home.
The name Video Norte came up because at the time...
we wanted to open a video rental store...
and there was the Center Norte shopping mall getting built...
here in the north zone. So we thought it would be nice...
to match inauguration of the Center Norte shopping mall...
with a new store called Video Norte.
We bought a batch of blank video tapes...
became members of OMNI, started renting their movies and copy them.
We rented a house and opened Video Norte.
At that time even Rubinho...
I asked Rubinho to come help me paint.
Rubinho joined us in painting the house.
And that sparked in him the same interest in opening a video store.
I opened mine in September of 1982 and Hobby opened...
probably around January or February of 1983.
I had a car. I sold that car...
because I didn't have any money in the bank.
I was a student. It was me and a friend of Mackenzie University.
We ended up buying 20 tapes and I said: "Now we're in business".
I did pretty much everything. That's all I did.
From waking up to going sleep: Video store.
That's all I thought about.
So I worked behind the counter, talked to customers.
Several customers, many of them are still my friends.
Great friends who were customers at my first store.
Because we contact with people.
But that's because we loved what we did. We liked this business.
Even though I love the Hobby store, I opened to be my business.
I opened it to make money. To grow and make money.
Back then we had a big opportunity, which nowadays it's a bit rare, right?
You could start small and keep on growing progressively.
Nowadays, for you to open new business, a small store, something...
it's a bit more complicated, I think...
as you don't have much opportunity to grow since there are...
so many other businesses that won't let you get your place in the market.
At the time, thank god, we started to grow...
along with the number of customers, we were reaching goals...
growing and evolving.
In the beginning we opened the store with mostly videogames.
Mostly for our own use. I was very young...
opened the store when I was 19 years old.
So I loved to play video games.
Then I'd rent the games, those Atari games.
I liked to play video games and then started to get interested in movies...
so I brought to the store the stuff I liked and had joy to work with.
THE ALTERNATIVE MOVIES
What was that at that time in the market?
There were movies getting released overseas...
which weren't part of the catalogue of any company in Brazil.
So back then, CONCINE, which meant National Counsel of Cinema...
used to overlook the use of these movies...
because we didn't have those products in catalogue.
We rented to everyone, including police chiefs...
those who were in command, even military police.
But nobody used to say those were bootlegs...
because the word bootleg didn't even exist. It was a video tape.
Everybody thought that was normal.
Even us, especially since there was no legislation in Brazil...
about tapes, absolutely nothing.
We used to rent either at Video Clube or other video stores...
from the few that were around, and made copies.
So then we'd make our own cover artwork, for our store.
So it was like I had my own Hobby Video cover artwork.
We had to watch the movie, most of them we had already seen...
and we had to write synopses for them.
We had to type it all. There were no computers.
We'd write down names for the director, actors...
year of release, and synopsis.
A year later, around 1984, some people...
started selling really good copies.
So from those copies we'd make more copies.
And they also sold the cover artwork printed in photographic paper.
They took a photo of the original covers...
and printed copies on photographic paper.
It was a business that required very low investment.
Everybody that are still around today, without exception...
started back then investing very little.
Because it was the cost of a blank tape that turned into a movie.
Of course, you have to invest money on the store...
but the raw material was relatively cheap.
Everybody wanted to rent movies and we just didn't have enough.
So my son used to sit on the corner gathering timecards...
while my daughter and I worked behind the counter...
working with our customers.
A costumer would bring back a movie...
my son grabbed the timecard to put it back outside.
And there was another costumer ready to grab that card...
so they could rent that same movie.
I used to love movies. Really loved movies.
Dubbed, subtitled, it didn't matter.
We started to understand it was good business.
And it was great because it was also fun, right?
Who doesn't want to spend the day watching movies?
Who doesn't want to spend the day talking to friends?
Who found this place were my uncles and my dad.
The video rental store business was happening.
So they said: "Well, let's try it".
They had some money so they opened a little door in a garage.
It wasn't working out so they said: "Let's sell it".
Then my mom said: "I'll try it".
She kept on try and then suddenly the store took off.
Things started moving. And everything was going well.
So I grew up with movies, watching them at the store.
I still have friends that I met back then at the store...
and they still visit me.
Somebody recommended that I should go to Iris Magazine, to "Iris Foto".
Because they needed someone to write articles about the home video market.
Then I got to interview Paulo Fernando Ferreira...
the marketing manager at Globo Video here in São Paulo...
and Mr. Ghaba, the president of the first group of video rental stores.
One thing is the market of international distributors...
coming in and all that. But excuse me, we're Brazilians...
we built our market, we have our space and we're gonna fight for it.
So he started gathering a nice group of well informed people...
to form a defense of our market.
He rented a room at Rebouças Avenue, right by the Estados Unidos Avenue...
got it all started there and then the drama started...
which sparked a conversation that was necessary.
We started in the video rental business in 1984.
We started talking about cinema, cinema, cinema, cinema and...
suddenly we had this idea.
Maybe someday we'll be able to work with this.
Then suddenly we were opening a store.
We started to stock up, and since we were all mesmerized with art movies...
it was easy to get customers in our neighborhood...
which was Higienópolis.
People in the area were after those types of movies.
I started in the video store business in 1985 here, right downtown.
We found this place to be a building with a lot of traffic.
A building with lots of visitors.
And the residents of the Copan building amount to 5 thousand people.
So we thought we could have a successful business right here.
There are cities that don't have as many people.
Then later came "Globo Filmes" with Brazilian movies...
which was something we really wanted.
Globo Video" was very strong when it comes to Brazilian movies.
And for us that was crucial.
Because we ended up building a spectacular collection.
Globo had formed a department called GloboTec...
along with another department called called Globo Video...
whose main objective was to acquire movies...
documentaries and series. And especially exploit...
the commercialization of everything Globo produced.
So they called me about a position in one of the Globo companies...
which was Globo Video, about whether I'd be interested...
in working as secretary.
In November of 1984 we released 7 videos.
I don't remember exactly what they were...
but I remember we had "Trapalhões", we had TV series...
such as "The Death and Life of a Severino"...
and "The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell".
As Globo, we released a lot of European movies, several.
There were people from video stores who used to come to my office.
Sometimes depending on where I was...
I'd stop by their stores and leave copies.
Since it was on my way I'd say: "I can it drop it off for you".
DISTRIBUTORS AND SEALED MOVIES
There was an executive who came to study the Brazilian market...
representing Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios...
and he obviously spoke with Ghaba.
He spoke with some other people in the business...
and then got to meet Toni Correa, who had a well established business.
He had a chain store called Audio. And Toni recommended me.
We tried to talk to people at Globo Video...
and other film distributors.
But nobody really showed any interest...
and determination to take this thing forward.
When you're starting from scratch...
you have to have a lot of faith and determination.
And we had that... we were like The Three Musketeers.
In the beginning at CIC it was just me, him and Steve. Nobody else.
Later on we started getting more people for sales and marketing...
as well as for my department of finances and management.
The office started at my place, in my apartment.
I started hiring people, interviewing them at home...
sometimes in a restaurant...
At the time we were fighting with hope and motivation...
to do something good.
My first purchase I'm pretty sure it was "Indiana Jones".
My first official copy.
This is one of the copies of the first official release.
This is very rare.
Many of these labels were put on by me.
And that's how it was. We had to get it distributed...
things needed to move along, so everybody was working hard.
Another different thing we had was artwork of higher quality...
closer to what was done in Hollywood, not a copy of a copy.
We did the first hologram for "E.T."
At the time we already had hologram seals.
It was the first release that had a very strong support...
with lots of promo material.
The market was getting more professional.
It's a cool story. It's nice to see.
Dear friend Marcos Rosset, a great professional...
who knows a lot of about cinema, who knows movies.
I wanted to work with marketing, because I graduated in marketing.
Ricardo, unfortunately we don't have a position for you in marketing.
What we have for you is sales rep." So then I said:
My god, I never worked as a sales rep...
never worked selling anything. But let's go for this experience".
And really, I walked all over this region in São Paulo.
I'd walk from block to block...
because there were video stores in every corner.
So for example, the movie "The Sting"...
they already had alternative tapes at the stores.
And there were those timecards with synopses...
so CIC came up with a new idea of making their own timecards.
Their own CIC branded cards, for "The Sting"...
Raiders of the Lost Ark" ready to go to the board on the wall.
So I'd show up at the stores, they'd laugh...
I'd take out the alternative tapes timecards...
and put the timecards for the official tapes.
So I learned at CIC how to make money, how to do business.
That's when I spoke with Toni Correa, who unfortunately passed away...
and we opened "Trans Video".
There were people who came to talk to me to understand...
to try to open video companies.
Paulo and Magaly are two of the ones who came to talk to us...
and we're still friends.
Well, Marilyn has always been a legend in cinema, right?
A gorgeous woman, with wonderful eyes.
So let's do the "Look" logo coming from her eyes.
And you see that the name comes out, the Look logo, right from her eyes.
That was very memorable. It was the best time of my life.
The best time of my life.
I get a little nervous talking like this. Gives me a heat wave.
So we started buying all kinds of art movies.
Like Carlos Saura. I released every movie by Carlos Saura.
Every movie by Wim Wenders, every movie by Kieslowski,
Mario Monicelli... And back then I didn't know much.
You learn with time.
You have to study to learn. I had my circle of friends:
Leon Cakoff, who was extremely intelligent.
Also Paulo de Góes, who unfortunately passed away.
He passed away right after we arrived in Cannes.
Paulo de Góes, wow, he was a dear friend.
And sometimes I'd get lost, I was...
Critics, journalists... they knew everything.
I learned a lot with them.
In the recent times, there's a genre that's been very successful. Horror.
Somewhat due to how it works well as home video.
But the problem is choice. The movies are very similar to each other...
so it makes it difficult to tell what's good and what's bad.
That's why I want you to know about one of my favorite horror movies.
It's called "Evil Dead". Never shown in movie theaters in Brazil...
it had a sequel in 1987: "Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn".
The first one we picked up and watched right away was...
Evil Dead" the death of the demon.
What a movie... My kids were still young...
And back then everybody loved horror movies.
Everybody watched horror movies.
This is a classic.
You know, I released this movie, but couldn't watch it.
I would always released 3 movies at the same time.
So people would have choice. "Should I get Tuff Turf?"
You mentioned someone there who's a legend.
Oceano Vieira and his Video Newspaper. He was the first video bible.
I worked at Sears selling video cassette players in Campinas.
I used to live in Campinas. I was candidate to the presidency...
of the labor union for the commerce employees of Campinas.
And I saw a journalist coming into a store to attack me...
to demoralize me.
So he comes in and opens a folder and shows me a mockup...
for a newspaper called The Video Rental Newspaper.
The day before I had done my own mockup for a Video Newspaper.
We made a deal. I partnered with Moretti...
this supposed enemy of mine, and we were going to release...
Jornal do Vídeo" ("The Video Newspaper")...
which was gonna be given to customers in video stores.
In the first issue, that you can see here...
we already had some paid advertisements which were enough...
to make us a little profit.
So then a magazine came out, which became Video News eventually.
As I knew the owners, we ended up working together.
It was amazing because everything was so fast...
that when I arrived in the second month...
the quarterly magazine turned into a monthly magazine.
The growth was scary. For example, there was the Two Wheels magazine...
about bikes, which is always growing.
And now Video News in just six months...
surpassed their sales in every aspect.
The deal I had with OMNI was literally like this:
You can come here, grab whatever movies you want...
watch them and bring them back".
I spent months consuming the catalogue of imported movies...
with no subtitles at OMNI Video without spending a dime.
It was heaven on Earth.
Since I like cinema, I was thinking about selling my gas station...
and wondered what I was going to do.
I thought the best thing would be something without much competition.
We didn't even have our own video cassette player back then.
So we started and the business took off right away.
We would open the video store on Saturdays...
and there was always some people waiting...
before we arrived, standing in like waiting for the store to open.
I always wanted to have a big business.
Neverwanted to have a small store that makes little money.
I needed to plan on supporting my family.
We saw a lot of children grow. We were there for 25 years...
so we'd see children coming in very young...
then time goes by and we'd see them grow.
Then they'd disappear for a while and come back:
Hey, I got married, this is my wife".
Children used to like us a lot. They often said:
I used to come here when I was very young, with my parents...
and now I'm coming in here with my children.
I remember such and such movie.
I used to pick the same cartoon and my dad didn't let me take it home".
Now you can ask him why he used to watch the same movie...
over and over when he was young. Maybe he'll answer you.
I don't know. I think I liked the plots.
It's what was connecting with me at that moment in my life.
At the time when the business was going well, on a good path...
the relationship with customers, the negotiations...
the understanding of how costumers think...
all of this I learned daily here at home.
My first job was in a video store. I was 16 years old.
It was easy because who actually spoke with the store owners wasn't me.
It was my mom. She spoke with them, came home and said:
Look, I spoke with the people at the video store.
Go there talk to them". So I came over and started working.
To bring us back to the past is really nice...
because it reminds me of the time I had my first job...
it reminds me of everything I lived there with those people.
Because I like being there with people.
That's whyto this day, even though we're not always in touch...
but I'm here, I'm still in touch with Mirtes, with Ricardo...
It makes me miss them. It makes me miss the good things in life.
It was interesting because our space was getting too small. Ghaba said:
Well, I want something with technology, I want open space".
We had an architect, Edmilson, who did everything avant-garde.
I had never seen anything like it.
Pillars suspended in the air, floor with burned cement.
It had an atmosphere that felt like you were in a magical place, different.
It was a wonderful space. You could just walk through.
It was program for the day, going to Faria Lima Avenue...
getting into the store, going through different genres...
checking all those possibilities.
They did something crazy and very cool.
They had these squares columns with shelves all around them.
So you'd be circling a column for a while.
They had about 8 columns in the room. Everything very well done.
This renovation was to celebrate the rental of one million tapes.
So that was his new home.
It was like... the same emotions from a wedding.
Are we live? I just wanted to say something important:
Ghaba, I came especially at this time because I think you deserve...
a big hug for your efforts, for your dedication.
I follow your work since the beginning.
I'd like to say, for the record, very respectfully...
about your looks with your flip flops...
which is something that represents your efforts...
And the bell-bottoms.
Let's go have a chat with Ghaba, because he might have something to say.
Come with me. Ghaba, where would you rather be right now?
Right here, with all of you.
Dress shoes or flip flops?
I think flip flops.
It got to a point where bootlegs, which were very good for us...
which was so easy to profit from...
we just had to copy over and over, right?
Our own costumers started to talk about opening their own stores.
And some would go far away, but some would open stores nearby...
and that's how bootlegs became an obstacle.
In one of the crises in the market...
that had to do with oversight of bootlegs...
the distributors sent the state against the video store.
Getting them to go after invoices for video tapes.
Nobody had invoices. It was all bootlegged.
There were barely any invoices.
They started checking everything, going after the video stores...
closing them, charging the owners as criminals.
We needed some sort of oversight, but what happened was very sudden.
It happened overnight. Everybody was making money...
so they waited for the market to grow, get strong...
so they could come in, take over and dictate...
everybody needs to play by their rules.
So we gathered at ABVEC, which was at Rebouças Avenue.
We coordinated and all the video stores closed their doors.
We planned on having a conversation, because it wasn't working out.
We went to the Maksoud Plaza Hotel, rented a room, I mean...
they did and invited us. The owners of 13 video stores, 13 chains.
At the time we called it the group of the 13.
So they said: "We're gonna lower the prices of films foryou...
we'll subsidize it, but you have to agree...
to buy films exclusively from us and not purchase any more bootlegs".
We were all forced to sign an agreement under a lot of pressure.
They took away our main material.
I couldn't provide to my costumers because I didn't have the product.
I mean, I didn't have access to bootlegs...
but I didn't have access to official material either.
It hurt the market. A lot of people have to abandon the business.
A lot of people said we were crazy.
Are you crazy? Official tapes don't exist".
Yeah, but we're gonna put this together... and so on".
I mean, the bootleg market was getting out of control.
This group of the 13, it wasn't meant to defend the interest of just the 13.
It was meant to defend the video rental business as a whole.
We were in favor of following the law. And bootlegging wasn't illegal.
There are video store owners who think...
that we are an association of video stores.
We're not. Never been.
UBV began as an association for the industry.
Its focus is different.
They're in the same market, fight for the same interests...
which they share, and UBV is an association for the distributors...
for the industry.
The market grew really fast.
Video cassette players became something everybody wanted.
So it spread really fast.
Then the process was automated...
with the beginning of Videolar, and so on. Many things.
I was invited in 1985, by Sony, to travel to Tokyo...
for an anual convention of the main distributors...
organized every years by Sony.
I had the chance to meet Akio Morita.
And I found out Sony used to do video copying, subtitling...
and cassette recording somewhere in Tokyo.
They had a method of rolling the film onto cassettes as it was recording.
So the cassettes were being built as the film is being recorded...
with 1 or 2 minutes of extratape.
That way there was no waste of film.
And that's what inspired the birth of Videolar.
We made an upgrade. We brought in higher quality.
This upgrade was so big and so important...
with a competitive price, that it allowed us...
to manufacture video tapes for major companies such as:
Paramount, Universal, Disney, Fox, Warner and Sony.
For many years I was part of the group Sony...
of Home Video and Entertainment. I started in this business in 1988...
which was when they were releasing the first VHS tapes...
from Columbia Tristar here in Brazil, which were distributed by BMG Ariola...
and I was the head of Sales. In the first release we had...
the movie "The Way We Were" was part of it.
Then "Platoon" came out and we released it too...
with a catalogue number with "OSC***"...
because it had to do with the Oscars.
I created all this stuff, the nomenclature, these things...
this new stuff.
And suddenly this market turned into a gold mine.
Because were used to going to video stores and renting movies.
For the customer, things only got better...
because the tapes were now copies of original masters.
So the quality of tapes when up, came with subtitles...
diverse catalogue...
The video stores were already well established...
so that market was born strong.
Because that business of renting bootleg tapes...
was what led to the creation of this market.
Back then, we had a video convention.
So I remember applying at Playarte.
Playarte was part of the convention.
Our application number at Playarte was 333.
Three hundred and thirty three.
Here, everybody. We just got here at "Video Trade Show".
So if you haven't had a chance to come visit...
we'll show you some of what happened at this event.
You're gonna learn about some companies...
that are making products for videophiles...
the people who love video.
And with these people you're seeing here...
we have a doppelgänger of the leading actor on the movie...
Paul Hogan.
- "Crocodile Dundee II", right? - Yeah, Paul Hogan.
Paul Hogan. Right here. Right here with me.
I'm standing next to Paulo José, who does marketing...
he's the marketing manager of CIC Video.
Marketing at CIC Video. Right.
We're now at David Bowie's "Labyrinth".
How does this work. What's the prize for who goes in?
I mean, who goes through the labyrinth, right?
Besides finding a surprise we're gonna show on the other side.
Well, the labyrinth is really cool. It has 3 fake exits.
Whoever leaves through them... that's their bad luck, right?
Because the goal is to find a crystal ball...
and bring it here to win the prize. It's fairly difficult to do this.
It's not easy. It's very well done.
- Are you going into the labyrinth? - I'm going into the labyrinth.
I want to walk through the path as David Bowie walked.
And looks who's right here in the labyrinth, holding a rose.
That's right, David Bowie.
David Bowie, who plays the part of "Zareth"?
- Jareth. - Jareth! Jareth!
Hello, Jareth! How are you? Ok?
That's Sarah! Sarah, right? Everything ok, Sarah? Ok?
And what is the objective of this convention?
The objective of this convention is to assess the potential of this market...
so the industry will have an idea.
We want to measure and try to learn about the consumer and their potential.
This one has digital effects? No?
So you're gonna have to do some digital touch up...
to make us look better.
When I left my last job, in a multinational company...
I was working with PCP...
a friend suggested I should sell movies.
At first I thought it was a crazy idea...
but eventually I ended up falling in love with this business.
There were weekend when we would rent more than 500 movies.
A lot more. On Friday mornings...
we'd put aside the movies people were asking.
Piles on the floor, it was a lot of movies.
My love for cinema is intense.
She's going to cry again...
I can't talk about it much... because I like it a lot.
I watch all genres, because I love... everyday.
If I don't bring a DVD home and there's a movie on TV...
that I've seen 500 times, I'll watch it again.
The name Renata Video came from the first store...
because it first opened at Renata Avenue.
Because of the avenue, we decided to use Renata Video.
Then we opened the second and third stores also as Renata Video...
so they all ended up being Renata Video.
We opened the first store on December 12, 1990.
The 15 Renata Video stores were always located...
in the East Zone of São Paulo.
One of them in out Guarulhos in the shopping mall...
but Guarulhos is right next to the East Zone of São Paulo.
So everything was always in the east.
I was the owner of Roma Video in Guarulhos for 16 years since 1987.
We were 3 brothers. I actually had a different career...
that had nothing to do with video.
But I loved movies and watched a lot of them.
I started in 1991. It was a period when there were already...
a lot of video stores and still growing.
It was already atime when that market wasn't a new thing.
Everything starts in the more urbanized areas...
more developed areas. Then the smaller towns starts getting those things.
It's always in this direction.
The first I bought was "Angel Heart", directed by Alan Parker.
It's getting old. Trans Video
It was the first time when we had a group of Brazilian...
in an international convention just for video.
Which was in Las Vegas. Called VSDA.
We came as a group of 30 Brazilians.
We were received by Warner, famous actors and directors.
To me it was glorious. It was something we didn't have here in Brazil.
These movie stars, right?
I learned there that their thing is to be big.
It was different. Everything I saw there I wanted to do here.
This is Gugelmin, at the time he was a Brazilian F1 driver for Jordan.
We brought our logo to Interlagos and many people would see it...
and think Hobby was a multinational corporation.
We were very proud of that.
He didn't do very well, got to 7th place, Gugelmin.
That evening his people called us and asked if I wanted...
to put another logo here on top. Right here.
There's a Hobby logo here. Just on the side.
If we wanted we could put another logo on the top...
for an extra 50% of what we paid.
So we spent a few more thousands of dollars.
At Rubinho's house, from Hobby, right?
It was his birthday and I was invited. I came over.
He asked: "Hey, didn't you have a project"?
Yeah, I have this project with Orlando Barroso".
Orlando at the time was the editor of Video News and I was the director.
So I said yes to Rubinho, on a Saturday. On Monday...
they had that big beautiful Hobby store at the Panamericana Plaza...
next to it, they had a house they used for storage.
They were already renovating it.
In 3 days it was ready for us to come with our furniture and other things.
Everything in their storage space. We put everything together in 3 days.
We started the first issue. Ver Video.
Everybody wanted to do something better than the other.
The distributors... Here comes "Batman"!
They would come up with big events that would go around the block.
They were actual blockbusters, you know?
And there's also this thing about Blockbuster, right?
That kinda shook the market.
So one day I found myself walking into a Blockbuster...
to buy movies to bring to my video store.
Then I said "No..." I woke up and said "That's enough!"
THE BLOCKBUSTER
Blockbuster, when it came to Brazil, they came competing very hard.
They invested a lot in marketing. So it was a big hit.
The local video stores benefited from this.
At first, for me and other video store owners, it was scary.
Because we saw what Blockbuster was capable of in the US.
We visited several of their stores and we were mesmerized.
It was jaw dropping.
For the small ones, not so much.
But for the big ones, where they were surrounded, it was terrible.
Especially for Hobby Video. They started to spread...
do a lot of market research to find out the best locations...
the locations with better strategy.
And they started to noticed that near Hobby Video stores...
wherever Hobby Video stores were, those were the best locations.
And they realized Hobby Video dominated the market.
Our intention, as Victor said, was not to sell.
But it comes to a point we start losing business.
The amount they offered... They made a low-ball offer...
close to what we wanted. We got very close.
But the waythey made the offer...
they were also making offer to other chains.
And they didn't buy our chain or anybody else's.
Which I believe to be their strategy. To make offers and just play around.
So during that period you don't pay attention to your business...
buy less movies...
They came to buy our chain. We negotiated...
we had a contract with cancellation fees...
and in the last minute they didn't do it.
To me, I'm gonna be honest, they helped me because...
who had them as a reference would see value in my business.
Because I had a bigger store than they did.
I had better conditions to serve our customers...
plenty of inventory and competitive prices.
The customers knew their prices compared to mine.
They had a good reference to compare prices and know mine was good.
They did strengthen the market.
They would remind everyone watching movies was fun...
it was fun going to a video store.
Not necessarily Blockbuster, it could be any other store.
São Paulo started offering a lot of good stores.
Not just Blockbuster. So in this aspect, it was very good.
A meeting. An emotion.
The charm of seduction.
The taste of pleasure. Erotic videos VCX.
For impassionate couples and those about to get hot.
VCX. The largest American producer of erotic videos.
Phone 6446-96, São Paulo.
I was a good seller, including porn movies.
I was such a good seller of porn movies...
that after selling porn for about 6 months they told me:
Why don't you also grab a catalogue of conventional movies"?
So I went to Playarte. Stayed 2 years at Playarte...
and then opened my own store.
Starting a video store was interesting because...
nobody had any idea of what to do.
You'd love video rental store, knew what they were...
but had no idea how it worked because nobody would teach you anything.
People had that as a goose with golden eggs...
and didn't want to give you any information.
We had no idea how to buy movies.
It seemed everything was very difficult even though it wasn't.
So since I started selling movies, because I started in sales...
I started getting the hang of it.
It wasn't as complicated as they made it seem.
And here in the East Zone, far out east...
video rental stores were almost like a new thing...
so I got to experience the business at its peak.
I had a massive amount of costumers.
I remember renting, on a January 2nd...
980 movies in one day by myself.
Charada never had employees.
It was always me, my wife and my kids.
One of them was 9 years old when I started and the other was 11.
Up until then, I used to be with my kids a lot.
But once we opened I would barely have a chance to be with them...
because you become a slave of the store.
The costumer flow was so high, so much money coming in...
that the sellers would wait in line to talk to us.
And there was a big issue, because I was friends with them.
There was that. So they'd say:
Hey, help me out, I gotta reach my sales quota".
I knew what they were talking about and more.
So I'd buy more. I bought 55 copies of Titanic.
There were fights at the door. There were fights.
With all 55 copies all rented, rented, rented...
for about 2 or 3 months. It was a cash cow...
At the time we'd rent them, if I'm not mistaken, for R$3,00.
Leon Cakoff and Jean Thomas from Imovision...
they used to release movies and did it just like me.
They'd distribute the movies to other copies.
They were very dissatisfied that the movies weren't making them money...
that the distributors weren't accountable...
So they wanted to created a new movie distribudor.
They convinced me so I joined them and we created Cult Filmes.
We were a company that sold exclusively cult movies to video stores.
It was nice because we'd make sure to do a good job on the artwork...
and other materials in order to realease movies...
on tapes we'd be proud of.
But on the other hand the market was a bit lazy and conditioned...
to consume commercial movies.
So a lot of movie stores didn't even want to bother with cult movies.
But we did it. The whole thing lasted...
if I remember correctly, 3 years.
I was in Los Angeles to cover the American Film Market.
David Gibbs, press secretary for the American Film Market...
stopped me at the hallway. "I'd like to invite you...
to a very special breakfast tomorrow morning.
I can't tell you anything, but it will be worldwide news".
Warner, Toshiba and Microsoft.
That's where they announced and presented a prototype of the DVD.
DIGITAL DREAMS
D-V-D: Digital Versatile Disc.
That sounded to me like the latest thing in the world.
What technology is this? They invested about 5 billion dollars.
People couldn't believe it a 120-minute video could fit in it.
The DVD was the most wonderful thing for the home video business.
The increase in rentals we had in just 6 months was absurd.
The golden period, to me...
I think it was during the transition from VHS to DVD.
That was the golden period. It was a good time.
That new thing was very well accepted and it was very quick.
People went after dvd players quickly...
because they wanted to try that new format.
They knew it had more features.
I had a meeting with the owner of MicroService.
They already had the technology to release the first DVD in Brazil.
So they release the first brazilian dvd, which was the movie...
Once Upon a Time in America" from FlashStar.
The DVD was very well accepted.
It was bringing back, in the following years, starting around 2000...
it was bringing back the costumers who had stopped watching movies.
They saw a new improved format and got excited about it.
So I thought: "Wait...
I'm never gonna find Brazilian or European movies on DVD.
Maybe we should open a company to release this type of movie"?
So we opened Versátil in August of 1997.
All of the covers released by Versátil at the time were like this:
With black background.
We followed this recipe because we didn't have time.
Our designer, Pereira at the time, had to get it done in an afternoon.
It was at the very beginning of the DVD...
when the master copies didn't have very good quality.
And it's funny that if you look at the artwork...
you can see we used to list as extras: Interactive menu and scene selection!
And a lot of the extras was just text.
This transition happened gradually because, you know...
some movies only existed in VHS, didn't exist in DVD...
some people wanted to see.
So the labels would have the release of the month...
produced in both formats, along with something else in dvd...
from their catalogue, so we could substitute the tapes.
December 5th, 2005
I was at home, and Ms. Lurders, who was his right-hand...
called me, but she was crying. I said "What is it"?
She said: "Ghaba passed away".
Since there were no doctors following his situation...
he had a massive heart attack.
And for people at his age, 55 years, that are not very old...
when they have a heart attack it's always deadly.
And thank god, thanks god, he died in his sleep.
He didn't notice anything. He passed away in his sleep.
There were many robberies in video stores after midnight.
I was a victim of these people in those vans.
What were they called? "Reverse gear" they call them?
I didn't even know it had that name. Damn, it was crazy.
I get goosebumps talking about it.
They came in, I don't remember...
people from the building told me...
They came in 4 cars. They had about 15 people...
filling up trash bags.
Happened at the store in Sumaré and also the one at Cidade Jardim.
They backed up a small pickup truck...
3 gunned men jump out and swept my store.
Cop cars were showing up everywhere.
The thieves took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong way.
They hit their wheel on the curb and it cracked the suspension.
They ran away and left everything behind.
I was able to get everything back.
I arrive at the police department to do a report and hear:
Hey, to get it this moving faster, leave us about 30 DVDs...
so we can share with the police chief".
There was one good thing about VHS.
If there were bootlegs, the image quality would be low.
The DVD, the told us, couldn't be bootlegged.
Sounds like ajoke, but it's true.
BOOTLEGGING: NO RETREET, NO SURRENDER
The bootlegs were sold on the streets.
So people would get movies on their computers...
or these copies sold out there, and would resell them on the streets.
Three for five bucks, five for ten bucks.
That's when the video rental stores started to decline very heavily.
It's a matter of willingness. Willingness.
Conscience and willingness, right?
We even had a few partners...
Technology is something that is always challenging you.
Now... the good and bad habits will always exist.
Bootlegs will always exist. They exist all over the world.
It's not just in Brazil. It's all over the world.
And it thrives because it has its market. Guaranteed market.
And the cinema industry nourishes this market.
The cinema industry is strengthening this business, the bootlegs.
The laws we have, wow, they're fantastic.
Our laws are the best, but they're not enforced, right?
Unfortunatelly the public is the greatest enemy of the fight...
against bootlegging in Brazil.
We have the best laws in the world, but they're not enforced.
The only time I was pleased was when Unibanco was acquired by Itaú.
I was very pleased then. But...
To me it wasn't a surpise to see them going out of business.
I thought Blockbuster... if the market was declining...
it would be declining for both Hobby and Blockbuster.
It was a company that represented Blockbuster in Brazil...
and that was good business for them.
It was a business that while it was giving them a good profit...
they were there. And when it wasn't paying off anymore, they gave it up.
So they sold it to the "Americanas" chain, right?
And for Americanas it was a good strategy because...
they'd get ahold of those good Blockbuster locations.
Then the Blu-ray came along.
Blu-ray is an excellent technology, when it comes to image quality.
Everybody was hoping it would revitalize the market like the DVD did.
It was born dead. I predicted it.
The labels didn't make sure it would be born strong.
And the quality... well, we used to have to rewind tapes...
and we had tapes with bad quality. The DVD came and solved this.
Blu-Ray is digital, but DVD is also digital.
Then 3D Blu-Rays came along...
but nobody knew they had to buy a 3D TV...
I wasn't heavily impacted by bootlegging.
The biggest hit was when we got cable TV and internet.
People started downloading movies.
And they can get it in high definition, very good quality...
quality similar to DVD or Blu-ray.
DREAMING IN THE CLOUDS
Then came Netflix. Then "Now".
Then things really started to go downhill.
The video store business started owning money to the distributors.
Some people stopped paying their bills.
Lots of people going bankrupt, closing doors, with debt.
The distributors had to find another way.
Because they had to pay their own bills overseas.
I think the world has two types of entertainment.
The type that you experience at home and the one that gets you to go out.
So when they were telling me home video would hurt cinema...
nope. Because who wants to watch home video, wants to stay home.
Who wants to see a movie at the theater, wants to go out.
I think going to the movie theater is an activity that competes...
with concerts, going out to dinner or traveling.
Within this scope of who chooses to watch movies at home...
what was the biggest challenge for the video stores?
Getting the movies back.
As technology developed and allowed you...
to have a TV connected to the internet where you have...
your own virtual video rental store, everything changed.
The time people had available, to watch movies was shrinking...
shrinking, shrinking.
So who wants to watch a movie today, they need something quick.
The amount of time to stop by a video store...
then go back to return the movies... well, my friend...
You're fighting for their time. So people tryto profit from it.
Well, of course bootlegging is dishonest, it's horrible...
it brought some unecessary things... anyway.
But when you're trying to get costumers...
you're asking for something that is very expensive for them, their time.
We're telling them to sit down and devote an hour and a half...
or two to watch something.
When stores started closing, in the beginning I obviously felt...
I'd have to close as well...
as I had too many stores for this market that was shrinking.
So I wanted to close. It got to a point, after a few years...
so many people were closing their stores...
I used to hear it all the time about a store close here...
and another store closing there.
I started saying I didn't want anybody to close anymore.
I said: "We're gonna lose visibility". And that's what happened.
I have a lot of respect for my customers.
I think they deserve to be revered.
I keep thinking... sometimes I say in the meetings:
We have to stop and think about what inspired a person...
to get in their car, or walk, or bike, or whatever...
to come all the way to the store, you know?
What are they expecting to find here"?
This person needs to be revered and well treated.
You need to surprise them. That's what I used to say.
The recent closing of 2001 in São Paulo generated quite a bit of buzz...
and I saw a lot of good comments about the video store business.
Even though it's a bit late.
It's striking that such a niche business...
can't survive in a country this size.
So basically it's the end of this culture.
I feel like... I feel like I did my part.
Now I have my kids, my daughter-in-law.
Now it's their moment, it's the moment for the young people.
I did my part. They're new minds, prepared for this moment.
To me, the video store always had a crucial role in everything.
To me it was the first gateway to all kinds of movies.
Any kind. Whatever movie I needed, I'd look for it at a video store.
I guess now it's a matter of getting used to new format.
You gotta learn to use these services...
that have everything available for you.
You pay them a fee and you have access to a million movies.
For example, these on demand rentals on TV.
To get something, it's just a matter of getting used to it...
but I think it's missing the human contact a video store can provide.
To go there and talk to people about cinema.
I think this is forever lost. It's gone.
I've been in this neighborhood for about 4years...
and that's how long I've been coming here.
I came in and they were selling everything?
It was heart breaking. At the same time I was glad...
I could buy a bunch of movies but... this was a place of refuge, you know?
I like the whole ritual or grabbing it, having it in my hand. I like to buy.
I like this environment, especially talking to people who work here.
We're friends on social media, we're always exchanging messages.
I hope not to lose contact with them.
We have to come up with something, I guess.
So we don't lose this environment, this communication.
It bothers me, because... We have this connection with our customers.
We talked to them and end up getting attached.
I have friends who are customers. We hang out and do stuff.
So end up developing these friendships...
we get to know them a little better.
Sometimes they'd come over looking for a movie...
because they have something going on in their lives...
It's nice to have this connection with people.
Was is good? It was good.
If I had a chance, would I do it all over again? Of course I would.
I'd like to thank everybody who came in.
Those who value us and created history with us.
Those who made Splash, right? They helped.
Because it was not just us. But that's it.
Magical.
It's a magical business.
It's a virus that gets in your blood and never goes away. Never.
Those who built video stores, as a business...
after all we all did it for the business...
but those who built a video store and lived it...
who really got to work behind the counter...
ordering movies and everything... they caught this disease.
It will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
It's impossible not to carry this magic for the rest of your life.
The magic was in the moment you got someone...
to spark the desire to watch something.
It was like you'd bring this product and you could give to someone...
that special moment in their lives.
Because cinema brings you back to certain moments in your life.
We're not talking about an existing industry.
We're talking about something that started from scratch...
with a lot of euphoria and excitement.
We were watching a whole new market starting from scratch.
When it started happening, the hits and misses...
The TV had to catch up, had to show recent movies.
The movie theaters had to reinvent themselves, bring in 3D...
surround sound, and all that.
And we know we're responsible for this.
We're the ones who gave this market the first push in Brazil.
Today I have an idea because of my uncle.
I see the market, the history and people who talk to me.
Sometimes when I'm talking to parents of friends...
and they ask what my dad does.
When I tell them about Hobby Video, they all have a reaction:
What? Your dad owns Hobby Video"?
To me... he's my dad.
But for everybody else, Hobby Video was huge.
I know what Hobby Video meant to us.
But when I see how much it meant for other people...
That's when I think, "wow, they really were a big hit".
It was so big that...
I know people who lived their lives for their video stores.
They gave themselves to their video stores.
Something that I never thought would be this big.
Maybe my grandkids might watch this movie in the future and say:
Look, my grandmother was on TV. My grandmother owned a video store".
Which in the future, it will be something from the past...
something people won't even imagine existed.
Wow, what is a video rental store? What was it?
What a period... wow...
I was so young. So foolish.
THE RECYCLED MAGIC
I think it's a privilege. If younger people don't wanna know about it...
what it was, how it worked, or even that it existed...
I think they're missing out a lot.
I think they will miss an important part of our history.
Because I think people can only improve things...
change things for the better, if they know how it happened in the past.
- Hi Matheus. - How are you?
I'm well, and you?
Matheus, since the beginning, we used to talk a lot over the phone...
he was always asking, curious to know what movies I had.
He'd come here and do some research.
He's a costumer that since the beginning...
evening though nobody nowadays has video cassette players...
he still has his player and still rents tapes.
I like Glauber Rocha, I like his movies.
The Age of the Earth", "The Third Death of Joaquim Bolívar"'...
which he talks about.
And that's only on VHS.
That's only on VHS, "The Third Death of Joaquim Bolívar".
I have a special fondness for VHS. I'm glad to keep them.
And sometimes I rent them and I think it's great.
I'm always happy when I rent a VHS tape.
There's this movie "Love Strange Love"...
I have 3 or 4 copies. This one is not for rent.
For two reasons: First, I'm afraid...
since this movie is worth a lot of money...
of someone swapping the tape, stealing it or not returning it.
Each tape is worth roughly R$500.
Some great movies.
There are some wonderful, delightful movies...
that a lot of people have no idea. So many great titles.
So I'd feel bad just throwing it away.
You know it carries a history, right?
This is great!
Well, if you want to start by the letter A...
give it to me... it's right there on that wall.
Oh my god! Look, for Disney!
Mirtes, one of the things I admire...
about that period of the video stores...
which always grabbed my attention was the way some distributors...
would release their short series.
Because it was very common to see a short series released...
on double VHS cases like these...
such as "The Brotherhood of the Rose" and "Chiefs".
But then they came out with these vaccumform cases...
that could hold 3 tapes...
it was funny because we used to call it "videocassetão".
Because look at the size of the packaging.
Well, honestly I get a little...
- Emotional. - Yep.
It's very emotional, because I lived this...
so when I see this stuff...
It's not just nostalgia or reminiscing about the past.
But it's sad to see nobody respects this type of stuff anymore.
People like to bury the past.
While the past is fundamental for our understanding of the future.
It's something we miss...
which will eventually will turn into nothing, right?
But... it's like us.
We have a beginning and we have an end.
That's just how it is.
Today is our last day. We'll close at 9:30pm.
This is the last time we use the name CineMagia.
It was a name that brought me great joy.
I've been in this neighborhood for a long time.
I found CineMagia because when I was pregnant 12 years ago...
I used to come to the pharmacy next door.
That's how I became a customer.
I had no idea I used to come here before I was born.
But I'm very happy to see how strong this place has been.
That's why it gives me a good feeling when I come here.
A sense of comfort.
I wish I could have this, but I won't be able to.
It's the end of an era. Everything is digital now.
But this is much better, it's more human.
This lack of human contact... our values are a bit off.
I feel more in tune with people from the 80's...
which are getting left behind.
I say goodbye with sadness.
Let's get to the next chapter of our lives...
because unfortunately, the video store is over.
It's a story we will always carry in our hearts.
I'd like to leave a message to my future self...
forwhen I watch this documentary 35 years from now:
Don't give up on cinema.
Remember of every year you spent here.
Remember the good times you spent here.
Don't give up on cinema!
And whatever you're doing, don't forget the past.
And I hope you'll show your kids this place where you had so much fun.
- Hello, good morning. - Good afternoon.
- Is Ghaba there?
Look, he's at a recording at the moment.
Right. But that's Omni Video, right?
That's right. Omni Video.
I'm calling because I saw an ad on a newspaper...
Right.
- About movie rentals. - Perfect.
I was wondering if you have "One Hundred and One Dalmatians".
This movie has been rented. Would you like to leave me...
your address so I can send you a catalogue?
Sure. It's Manduri...
Just one minute, please. Ok, go ahead...
- Manduri Street... - Right.
- Number 119 - Perfect.
All right, thank you!
We'll send you a catalogue.
Bye
Good bye.
Ghaba, good morning. Ghaba, wake up.
Ghaba wake up, because somebody just woke me up.
A customer called right now, asking for...
"One Hundred and One Dalmatians", Ghaba.
Go, rush and see if you can find this.
The guy wants the movie, ok? See what you can do. Ok? Ok... bye.
Recovered by (c) dCd / July 2018