In something of an ode to the independent spirit, TIM WONG found out that Wellington's most discerning movie library is much more than an old flat with a whole lot of videos.


ANDREW IS NOT EXPANDING. At least, not in a let's-take-over-the-world kind of way. Nor is he planning to move, relocate or upsize (as all budding capitalists are taught to say). One imagines he's happy right where he is: tucked away in his modest, ever-enduring street-front property along the strip known simply to Wellingtonians as Aro Street.

This Andrew is Andrew Armitage of Aro Street Video: entrepreneur, film-lover and owner of Wellington's only real video library. You won't find Where the Boy's Aren't here. You won't find video games either. You won't find trash sequels to American Psycho or Legally Blonde. What you will find is the crème de la crème of moviedom; a cinematic buffet offering only the finest and most desperately elusive cold-cuts from the world of flickering pictures, provided on either VHS or DVD for your utmost viewing pleasure.

Founded in 1989, Andrew's raison d'etre for establishing the business was that his, "personal interest as a consumer of film wasn't being satisfied in the marketplace." You don't say. What took a lot of balls in the first place then is also tinged with irony, considering that all video stores seem to do these days is humour the consumer. Aro St. Video, of course, functions in exactly the opposite, its emphasis not on the consumer (or spender) as such, but the film enthusiast. The curious observer. The guy who just wants to rent a good movie and that's it. While franchise stores hijack us with endless promotions, competitions, false promises and free stuff, Aro St. Video's form of market persuasion is simply to do one thing and one thing well – give us the movies we really want.

In Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World – a Lumière favourite, by the way – we get to see this gap in priorities illustrated perfectly, when a well-to-do-man attempts somewhat pointlessly to track down a copy of Fellini's 8 ½ at the local shopping mall video chain. What he gets is a premeditated greeting, response and slap in the face in the form of 9 ½ Weeks. "You can find that in the Erotic Drama section," the clerk hastens to add. What's so ruthless about this scene is that it is more or less what franchise video is, or at least is becoming: an impersonal, faceless experience where hapless employees are programmed into a state of robotic servitude, aggressive coercion and when in doubt, hail to the corporate mantra (Blockbuster Video uses the five-pronged G.U.E.S.T, for example). And as the character Enid observes later in the scene, the variety of movies you'll find isn't exactly stimulating, either.

Okay, so most video stores in New Zealand are not like this. Yet. Their staff are genuine, friendly and essentially nice people. We think. There are even several franchise outfits in Wellington that cater more than adequately for both the populist and more open-minded viewer in equal quantities. Likewise, Aro St. Video isn't anti-establishment. Nor does it shun the mainstream. It won't proclaim to hold a screw-the-rest-of-you grudge either (although we didn't ask Andrew about that). What it is, is authentic. Like an understated second-hand bookstore, it is located in the heart of the bohemian Aro Valley community, so is "alternative" in that sense. The building is old, heritage like, its walls overflowing with video content as it extends upstairs into what appears to be a former flat. It's almost like being welcomed into someone's home. Andrew's home.

As idiosyncratic as this icon of Wellington is (it is an icon, isn't it?), it's not about to exclude the kind of movie fan that craves nothing more than a little mindless, cookie-cutter entertainment. And that includes every single one of us, admittedly. Andrew admits too that, "We're not quite as staunch about 'no crap' as we might have once been, as for one we've grown larger, but also it could be said that Hollywood produces a lot more films than it used to, and therefore we're somewhat obliged to stock more (high profile) crap." Selling out? No, just doing what Aro St. Video has always done – putting the "home" back into home video. Or something like that.

Of course, where Aro St. differs most famously is in its vast collection of the "alternative" cinema – the great foreign films, cult classics, historical oddities and obscure video nasties that you've read or heard about, but never thought you'd find in New Zealand, let alone at your local Video Ezy. So when a typical franchise store is faced with another customer trying to hunt down one of these obscurities, the general consensus is: try Aro St. Video. And most of the time, they'll have what you're looking for (or close to it), whether it's Russ Meyer's Faster Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!, David Gordon Green's George Washington, or, if you're in the mood, Pier Paolo Pasonlini's Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom. And then there's always 8 ½.

Still, it's not as simple as cutting a deal here and importing a title there. As Andrew points out, "The single significant obstacle we face in bringing NZ[d]ers a comprehensive range of film is Censorship...The fact is that we can import from all over the world without restrictions but we can't trade in films that have not been classified in NZ. 99% of these unrated films are classifiable but at a cost that is incommensurate to the market demand." Nevertheless, the Aro St. team seem to make do just fine with what has been classified, in particular with an increasing selection of unreleased films from past International Film Festivals (which can be cross referenced on the website) – films that screen once, twice, and then never again. The fact that we're able to revisit former one-time highlights – Gasper Noè's I Stand Alone or Claude Chabrol's Merci Pour Le Chocolat, to name a few – is what makes the Aro St. Video a rare breed indeed.

And it's not entirely true that Andrew isn't "expanding". As he sees it, "2003 was the year of the website." Previously a straightforward, does-the-job Internet hub for the store's catalogue of titles, DVD/VHS sales and humble courier rental service, arovideo.co.nz was revamped midway through last year into a professional online source boasting an advanced search engine, rental database, consistent updates on new/upcoming titles and catalogue additions, and a fully integrated courier and retail service, giving all New Zealanders the opportunity to buy and rent from Wellington's one and only Aro St. Video. Not only is Aro Video Online a means of extending an invaluable film resource to the wider film-loving community (the store itself has tended to remain somewhat isolated, and cars don't always agree with the street either), but it's also something of a first. Soon, the website will even incorporate real-time rental status, giving users the ability to check if their desired movies are in, or out. It's called technology, apparently.

Yet, if Aro St. Video is so great, why aren't there more like it? "I think the reason why nobody has opened a similar type of store is because it is a lot riskier than buying into a chain." Andrew's right; when bottom lines count – and in today's world, they most definitely count – buying into a franchise seems the sensible option. And lets face it – given the choice, most people would rather watch a Stephen Baldwin movie than sit through two hours of pretentious subtitled nonsense. But that's hardly the point. Aro St. Video has plugged a very large hole in the local video market for well over 10 years. And like Christchurch's Alice in Videoland, or Auckland's Videon, there are plenty of film-loving New Zealanders who depend solely on this kind of resource to complete their fixation with the moving image. Situated on an aging length of Wellington heritage, we could say that Aro St. Video is like the Main St. Royal in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show. Except that it's not. Both are rarities – one showcasing the forgotten Hollywood, the other an alternative to Hollywood – yet one dies and the other lives on. And for once, it seems, life isn't quite ready to imitate art.