Best Video Film & Cultural Center—A Cultural Jewel
Our longtime video source and neighborhood gathering place has turned into a non-profit cultural center and video archive. We need your help to expand into our new film education role and to stay open.
Who are we and what are we trying to accomplish?
Best Video has been around for over 30 years — and we have the deep, deep stock of over 30,000 film titles to show for it.
As of November, 2015, our non-profit bought the film collection from the original owner. We are officially recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 charitable organization, which can receive tax-deductible donations. Donations—minus the value of the rewards/awards—will be deductible from federal taxes.
The new Best Video Film and Cultural Center (BVFCC) still plans to bring people together with great films and will continue acting as a community gathering place, movie screening and music forum. And we want to expand our educational and cultural events — working with schools and local groups.
This is exciting. We can do new things but we need to fund them.
![]()
While BVFCC offers all genres of film, the collection is overwhelmingly dedicated to non-commercial, non-current release films. The archive features some 140 sections organized by director (Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa and many more). There are thirty sections organized by country of film origin (France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, etc.) or region (Scandinavian, Latin America, Arabic, Africa, miscellaneous foreign).
The archive's extensive documentary section includes a general documentary section containing over 600 titles. The documentary offerings also include sections on political issues, nature, history, military history, African-American history, the Holocaust, religion and more.
To the best of our knowledge, the BVFCC archive has more titles than any other organization in the State of Connecticut and is among the best in the country in terms of its scope and breadth. Most of the titles cannot be found online through commercial streaming media platforms and the majority are not available through DVD vending machines or through the local public library.
![]()
What do we need?
BVFCC has made it through the change of direction. We want to take the energy from our switch to a film cultural center and use it to take steps to reinvent ourselves for this new era.
Here is how we will use your gift:
1 • Plan and fund our first film festival to showcase student work as we organize and staff the development of new education programs.
2 • Double our intimate curated film screenings to at least 40 per year.
3 • Pay off a big chunk of the debt for the thousands of films we purchased from our predecessor store
4 • Maintain our unique listening room for local artists performing genres from rock to classical, jazz to folk.
With a successful campaign we will establish a solid foundation to expand our collection of the interesting and obscure films and to press on with our ambitious plans to provide educational opportunities for varied ages and interests. We will be able to provide you with more screenings, lectures and live music events to enjoy with friends and neighbors.
![]()
Your help is very much appreciated. We would love to have your support both by donating to this campaign and by coming into BVFCC to join one of our rental plans, take in a show, and congregate at our coffee shop. Can't donate? We would love to have your invaluable support by sharing this campaign to your friends on Facebook and through other social media. Together we can keep Best video Film & Cultural Center a thriving part of our cultural life!