Disc Jockeys: Austin Loves We Luv Video
‘Disc Jockeys’ is a column featuring video stores across the country that provide their communities with access to DVDs, Blu-Rays and VHS (that can – and often can’t – be found anywhere else), in which we explore what it takes to survive as a physical media store in the age of streaming.
Lawyer by day, Board Chair of a video non-profit by night, Macy Cotton is just one of the many volunteer caped-crusaders keeping Austin’s We Luv Video open 50 hours a week and providing Texan cinephiles with their physical media fix.
We Luv Video started as a way to keep video stores alive in Austin, when two of the main independent chains closed in 2019 and 2020. One of those chains, I Luv Video had 10 stores at its peak, and a massive collection of VHS, DVDs and Blu Rays that were looking for a home after the store’s closure. The owner of I Luv Video, Conrad Bejarano, wanted to make sure the collection stayed together and was available to the public.
Enter Macy and her 100% volunteer squad. They took the I Luv Video collection and opened We Luv Video, and on top of renting out tapes and disks, they run screenings, charity events, book clubs and feature local artists whenever they can.
We recently spoke with Macy about what it takes to keep a Texas video store afloat.
You took over the collection of I Luv Video which was a for-profit that went out of business in 2020. Tell me a little bit about how the collection was moved over to the nonprofit and how the nonprofit was started.
I didn’t know the owner, Conrad Bejarano. I had read a few pieces about what Conrad was going to do with a collection, because of course that was like the first thing that everyone asked him. ‘You have thousands and thousands of these things. What are you going to do with them?’
Conrad said he was open to a lot of offers but his main thing was that he didn’t want to split up the collection and he didn’t want it to go to private individuals. He felt this needed to be enjoyed by the public.
I started looking up other video stores that were still in existence. You’ve talked already with Beyond Video. Beyond were the first people that we reached out to because they started with no collection. And I was like, oh, this is a proof of concept that I can take to Conrad and say, ‘There’s a demand and I think a nonprofit model is the way to go here’. So we cold emailed Conrad and he was open to it and met with us.
The collection had been through a lot. It had been in sea crates for a while, it had been in an insulated milk truck. There was almost three years before it moved into our store. It’s hot in Texas, so we had to quality check the films. We were just happy that Conrad took a chance on us, honestly.
There were two big video store chains in Austin. There was I Luv Video and then there was Vulcan Video, which also which shut down in 2019, and just by coincidence, the Vulcan location was available for rent. So, it’s just a nice homage that we’re now in the old Vulcan location.
Tell me a little about your background. What were you doing before this and with it being a nonprofit, is there anything else you’re doing on the side?
Unfortunately, nobody gets paid at We Luv Video. This is a hobby for fun. I’m a lawyer and I work for the state at my regular job. We are able to make a profit and be able to acquire movies and do fun stuff, but we don’t make enough to be able to sustain even one person’s lifestyle right now. So that’s where we’re at.
Pure passion. That’s still great though. It shows how much it means to everybody.
I think it’s a huge selling point. Our volunteer list is long. Every time we put out a call for clerks or for people helping with our events, we always get people, and I think a big part of that is that we are all here because we truly want to be, and that is really special.
Community is such a huge part of your store. You have local artists creating the front display and designing your t-shirts You have events like flood benefits. Tell me a little bit about your efforts to foster that community.
Honestly, it’s the luck of the people that have selected to come in and join us. Everyone understands that we have to split up responsibilities to make a business that’s open 50-hours-a-week work.
With the flood benefit thing, that was one of our volunteers who messaged and said, ‘Hey, we see a lot of other businesses in the area doing this, I think we should do it. Let’s do a raffle. I’ll coordinate.’ One of our board members said ‘I want to run a t-shirt contest’ So if you can dream it, and it’s cheap, then we’ll try to make it happen.
You also have a micro cinema. What do you look to program when you’re putting on screenings there?
I don’t personally program. We have a whole events team that does, but I believe that they would say that community is the focus there as well.
We have a lot of regular monthly screenings. We have Ani-Mondays animation series. We have Sun-Gays, which is a Sunday night every month that shows obscure queer film. We have a book club that is just for members, and they read the book and then compare it with the film adaptation.
When the opportunities come up to play local filmmakers, we try to screen their work as well. We try and encourage folks that if you make it, we want to try and play it. We try and keep it fun.
How many titles do you have and what type of titles do you look for like when you’re looking to expand?
We are still sorting through the I Luv Video collection. That has been a gargantuan task. They were running off of DOS. For real. So with the inventory list, it was like starting completely from scratch.
We have recently inherited some of the Alamo’s Video Vortex collection. They had some runoff and reached out to us. Then we do we get a lot of community donations. More than once, we’ve gotten entire garbage bags just left on our front door at night.
We have a lot of members that will notice we didn’t have something and then they’ll buy it for themselves and then donate to us after, which I think is just always very sweet. So we have so a lot coming in from a lot of different angles, which honestly covers a lot.
When we are looking for acquisitions, we try and go international and local if we can. And honestly, it is kind of surprising, but New Releases do really well still, so we try and get the New Releases when we can.
Yeah, that totally makes sense. I when I go to my video store, too, there is just something instinctive to go to the New Releases section. Even just like having it and renting it, it makes sure that I’m going to watch this and not miss it. I totally get that because I do it myself.
Yeah, I do too. And we try it we keep a New-To-Us section as well, so if it’s donated by somebody, then it’ll go in the New-To-Us shelf.
Why are video stores still important?
What’s really important is people being able to own what they own. I think that there has been a big movement of people realizing like ‘whoa I’m paying just to have access to this stuff momentarily. That doesn’t stop corporations from editing it. That doesn’t stop it from being pulled. There’s no guarantee that you could ever access that again, right?
We hear it with movies. We hear it with TV. I don’t want these streaming services to be the arbiter of what should be censored and what should not be censored, what should be edited for looks– aspect ratios anything like that. With something like Killers of the Flower Moon, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to watch that again on a physical release.
And then, this is just a personal thing, I love DVD for special features. I love watching directors’ commentary, I love bloopers. Stuff like that that goes nowhere now. The Superbad DVD menu that is legit Michael Cera dancing for one hour. He did that for real, and it loops and that was just a joke that they wanted to do. That was something really really cool that they’re not really doing anymore. Just an appreciation for the craft, I guess.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
You can check out more of what We Luv Video are up to on their events page.
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