Alert! Scarecrow Video Needs Your Help Today!

I know that I bang this drum a bunch, but video archives and video stores are incredibly important in the age of streaming. As more and more viewing moves online, more and more titles get lost to format changeover, as places like Netflix simply do not prioritize the catalogue. Instead, older titles are being replaced by "Originals", so we're actually losing valuable pieces of cinema every time Netflix, or Hulu, or wherever doesn't decide to pick them up. 

That's why we need places like Scarecrow Video, a veritable mecca of movie history that's now been in operation for over thirty years, growing into the largest publicly available video collection in the world. They offer three times the number of titles available on your average streaming service, including formats like VHS and Laserdisc, so you can discover those rare slices of weirdness that didn't even make it to DVD. 

Yet beyond the movies themselves are the incredible folks who work at Scarecrow, who offer a truly diverse lineup of voices behind the counter, able to recommend your next favorite work because you probably wouldn't have thought of it in the first place. That's a great service, as we need individuals who are still able to curate and provide essential insight into cinema history. They even offer unique outreach efforts that bring communities together through our common language of film.

However, now that Scarecrow switched over to being a non-profit, they need a little help from us, and everyone else who loves movies. They've launched a campaign so that they can continue connecting people with the films they love. Check out this GoFundMe page (which is now live!) for more details on how and why you should donate. 

Look, they have a huge goal to achieve ($100,000), but it's an essential one to the general film community. If places like Scarecrow die off, we're not only devaluing pieces of cinema history, but also the folks who devote themselves to championing movies with all their might. Make sure that doesn't happen. The world's a better place when you can browse and uncover the next mind-melter you'd never heard of.