[Interview] - Dave Taylor 20th Century Flicks; The Last Surviving Video Store

When I walked through the doors of 20th Century Flicks on Christmas Steps, in Bristol, I felt like I had been here before. I was surrounded by shelves loaded with an assortment of DVD's which to me was no surprise until I turned around. Behind me by the door were rows of old VHS covers of films I haven't seen since my youth. There were old straight to video titles with familiar home release labels such 'Guild Home Video' and 'Medusa Home Entertainment'. Beside the counter were familiar films on laserdisc. It was as if the teenager in me who spent a portion of his formative years browsing through the local video library had taken my hand and dragged me back to the age of the video boom. For a moment I forgot that it was 2022, the age of Netflix and digital VOD (Video on Demand) and the video rental stores were all but gone. Surviving the rise of film ownership and digital streaming, 20th Century Flicks remains the oldest running film rental store, and this year it's celebrating its 40th birthday.