To Own on DVD: Please Insert Disc

Last weekend, the Chicago International Film Festival held its first Physical Media Fair. The fair highlighted DVD's as a medium to watch movies and TV series in contrast with streaming's rise in prominence.

The fair's intention was for audiences to reevaluate their physical media collections: how physical media came to be, how collections are made, and how to expand collector's growing archives

Physical Media Collecting

Streaming is unavoidable now. It started as a cheaper alternative to constantly renting and buying DVD's. Netflix initially was a website for delivering DVD's directly to people to circumvent the need to visit the video store.

Currently, Netflix is streaming's biggest examples of failing audiences. Streaming original series were an incentive for people to subscribe to different streaming platforms but now are a tedious chore to keep up with the latest cultural moment.

Specifying on original series, each season no longer feel the need to produce as much content: Sex and the City's first season was 20-episodes while its shortest was 8. A modern sitcom about adults managing metropolitan life, I Love LA, starts off with an 8-episode long series. If streaming was to entertain audiences, why are they getting less content?

Streaming also cancels and pull programming on a whim. She-Ra & the Princesses of Power and the 2018 Voltron reboot being examples of shows taken off Netflix, while shows can get cancelled without a chance of renewal like I Am Not Okay With This or undergo poorer writing decisions under pressure like Stranger Things.

Streaming's monopoly over entertainment also ruins the appeal of streaming. Before, audiences had an expansive library of movies and TV shows on Netflix, but as the platform got popular, companies began pulling their content out of Netflix to invest in their own streaming platform like Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock. Now, audiences would have to get 4 subscriptions for the same amount of choices.

This especially hurts people who are only interested in one or two titles per streaming service. The people who subscribed to Disney+ for Moana or Toy Story would not be interested in watching Ted or Family Guy.

This gave birth to the concept of physical media: audiences remember they can only watch their favorite media for certain and pay for movies they enjoy the most. A physical media collection is cultivated from watching, enjoying, and exchanging movies to build a library of one's favorite movies.

The main purpose of physical media collecting is to reflect on what media do you like best. Collections do not include an archive of the best movies of all time but the most impactful movies you have seen. It also puts into perspective the common tropes you enjoy watching.

The Movies Reviewed So Far

The TOODVD movie reviews so far are love stories: from romance to tragedies. Love stories reveal the intricacies of the self, which encompass the rise and falls of poignant relationships. These relationships are poignant for revealing to characters their internal needs and how the other encompass those needs.

For Hispanic Heritage Month, Mariposa Negra was reviewed and currently remains the most niche movie reviewed so far. The movie was screened at select festivals from 2006-2008 and doesn't appear available for streaming. The DVD itself was found in a video store in a shopping mall in Peru's capital city and the movie's setting of Lima.

Other places movies for TOODVD have been found were Goodwill, Half Priced Books, the Exchange, and Out of the Closet. Any thrift store is a place for possible physical media finds. The Physical Media Fair also brought attention to the Brown Elephant and Terror Vision Records and Video as new targets for shelf rummaging

What Movies Are Coming Soon

The Physical Media Fair's Saturday swap and Sunday market supplied TOODVD with more niche choices for reviews: Ichi the Killer, Drifter, and Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla being considered for review.

Previously acquired movies like Gnomeo & Juliet and Wedding Singer are also being queued for review. There is also a Fred Mercury documentary and another Peruvian film, Pasajeros, which are being considered.

Other movies of interest would be Mysterious Skin, which is notoriously hard to find due to a limited physical release and competitive resale costs. The Pokemon franchise also has a handful of movies like Pokemon 2000 that would be of great interest to review. When Harry Met Sally is also actively being searched for.