Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Aaron Hillis to Reinvent Cobble Hill's Video Free Brooklyn

Film critic Aaron Hillis, editor of GreenCine Daily and programmer at the independent cinema reRun at reBar in DUMBO, will turn his hand to a new venture -- running a video store in Cobble Hill with his wife Jennifer.

But not just any video store, according to Filmmaker Magazine: Video Free Brooklyn, at 244 Smith St., where he intends to go all artisanal and maybe even co-op. "I want to reinvent the video store experience and make it fun again," he says. He'll be behind the counter June 1.

More here.

UPDATE: The Hillises are crowdsourcing the funds to renovate the shop. More here.

Photo courtesy Google Streetview

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The new owner is, unfortunately, a condescending jerk. After renting me a DVD without taking off the device that locks the package (and after I broke the package, which must have been worth all of a dollar), he told me he would have "fixed me up" with some free DVDs if I had brought it back unwatched. Gee, thanks. That's awfully big of you, given that it was your mistake to begin with. And this "artisanal" business sounds like a lot of bologna. --a new Brooklynite and unimpressed film fan

Aaron Hillis said...

Hey, this is said new owner. I'm sorry you feel mistreated, but I know exactly who this is and recall a different sequence of events: you called to let me know that, on one of my first days behind the counter, I accidentally left on the security lock. I apologized profusely and let you know that I was adding free rentals, plural, to your account, which I did that very moment. When you returned, the security case was busted open, you laughed that "you couldn't wait," and I simply said that the case was permanently broken and couldn't be used again. You rolled your eyes at me, muttered something under your breath, and walked out. I believe in outstanding customer service, but when we had already agreed on what was going to happen for your troubles, well, I take verbal agreements at their word and wish you had, too.

Porter Bishop said...

I just got a charge on my credit card from Video Free Brooklyn. I haven't been there in I don't know how long. I called the store and was told by the girl working there that the new owner "found" a late charge from December 2011 and ran the card on my account. I honestly don't remember the circumstances of the return of the movies in question but I don't like this shady business practice and I'll be closing my account and will no longer recommend Video Free Brooklyn to my friends.