Boutique labels are the best curators for modern film fans

The work being done by boutique film labels, like the ones we spoke about in our article introducing boutique film distributors, is the most exciting and important movie curation currently occurring; more important than that done by movie critics, streaming services, and even the major studios. They are both distributing new movies and finding lost classics the audience they deserve.

Why boutique film distributors are important

Filling a void

In a perfect world, every film would be respected by the studio or people that own the rights, and they would all be available to watch, but a myriad of reasons prevent some movies from being widely available. In many cases, even major studios with deep pockets are choosing not to re-release movies in current formats, or sometimes even release movies at all.

Some studios are letting boutiques handle anything less than their best-sellers. For example, Paramount has a growing relationship with Vinegar Syndrome (VS), resulting in the first movie released under the VS sublabel Cinematograph being the elusive-to-home video Little Darlings. This is an early sex comedy from 1980 that shocked the world by focusing on the perspective of teenage girls in a bet to lose their virginity. It might not have made financial sense for Paramount Global to put money into restoring Little Darlings, but it’s an invaluable addition to VS’s growing library.

Expanding and establishing different canons

Boutique film distributors are playing an important role in changing the story of film as we know it. The Criterion Collection plays an influential role in their ability to bring movies to a new audience. After being called out for having a Euro-centric and overtly White focus, Criterion have reoriented to releasing more films directed by Black and women filmmakers to broaden their prospective audience and create a more well-rounded canon. This lets works like The Underground Railroad and Love & Basketball stand right alongside Persona. 

Within the European context, for every Pasolini or Bergman box set, we’ve also received an Agnes Varda and Chantal Akerman box set. Going from a handful of releases to an entire filmography makes a major difference in telling the story of these important women artists.Since Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Criterion, it has emerged at the top of the Sight and Sound 2022 Critics’ Poll. The change of focus has also allowed a noir like Detour a place right alongside Double Indemnity as a seminal noir to watch.

Preservation of history

Boutique labels present and preserve films, sometimes literally, like the case of The Apu Trilogy which Janus Films was able to preserve after the original camera negative (OCN) was nearly lost in a fire. During this tragic event, some of the most significant films in world history, the films that first brought Indian cinema to the world stage, were nearly lost forever.

Companies like Vinegar Syndrome are not just putting movies out. They are actually preserving the film itself, which is a massively expensive and difficult undertaking that even major studios aren’t necessarily doing properly.

Fewer movies are released in each successive format, which matters because of access problems and a cinephiles’ preference for watching movies in high-quality formats. To illustrate this point, consider the following chart.

Can you see the tiny sliver of green? Probably not.

The largest portion is the number of movies released on DVD as of February 2023 (approximately 294K). The next section is the number of movies released on Blu Ray (39K). Finally, that tiny green sliver? It shows Ultra HD 4K releases, with only 1,200 movies released.

Most people don’t tend to watch a DVD from 1998 on their high-tech systems. It’s hard enough to get audiences to watch a movie from 2015, let alone 1955 or 1915. It certainly helps if the print meets modern standards, which is very possible, as proven by 4K releases of movies like Rear Window.

A friendly source when others are lost

Another aspect of boutiques as curators that can’t be ignored is the role they fill in choosing movies for you. Especially with the Internet, the movies released by these small companies can become very personal. For example, Craig Rogers runs Deaf Crocodile, a small California-based boutique label releasing a very interesting array of trippy animated and foreign flicks. He can be found talking to fans directly with personalized posts on Internet forums, which is also true for Vinegar Syndrome’s Justin LaLiberty.

You may be lucky enough to have a friend or sibling to recommend more obscure movies to you, but many of us don’t always have someone around with the knowledge or interest to do so. Boutique film labels can help play that role; by looking around and finding which boutique company speaks to you, you can find that friend in the curator behind the label.

Boutique labels fill a void left by major studios, expanding the canon of film history and preserving films for future film buffs, making these small companies an essential resource in today’s film culture. They are helping to curate our ever-growing understanding of what’s out there for us to discover.

Written by Matthew Long

Edited by APT Editing