Video Free Brooklyn Films Will Be Sold To Alamo Drafthouse: Owner

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — Video Free Brooklyn's movies are expected to keep rolling under a new banner at Downtown Brooklyn's Alamo Drafthouse. The owner of the closed Cobble Hill store announced plans Thursday to sell his films to the eat-and-watch theater chain to support a Brooklyn outpost of Alamo's "Video Vortex" rental operation.

"I am excited that these DVDs and Blu-rays will live on, and hope that this will be a means for the lovingly curated VFB collection (est. 2002) to be available for years to come," owner Aaron Hillis wrote on Video Free Brooklyn's website.

Hillis and his wife, Jennifer, took over Video Free Brooklyn in 2012 and made it into a "movie lover's hangout," Hillis wrote in a 2016 article. But a drop in foot traffic and other changes in the neighborhood led the shop to leave its Smith Street storefront in 2016, with plans to reopen inside Alamo's Albee Square theater last year.

But Hillis has decided to hand over the store's library to Alamo after "serious thought about my future time and career commitments," he wrote. He said he was encouraged by the success of the Video Vortex store in Raleigh, North Carolina, which reportedly opened in April.

"Under the Video Vortex banner, Alamo is trying out some intriguing models that directly align with my passions for conserving and celebrating film culture," Hillis wrote.

Raleigh's Video Vortex, located inside the Alamo theater there, offers 75,000 titles available to rent for free, plus beers on tap and video equipment rentals, according to its website. Patrons can check out up to two movies at a time on DVD, Blu-Ray or even old-school VHS tapes.

The store was inspired by Alamo's programming series screening "straight-to-video" films from the 1980s through the early 2000s, according to a December press release from the company.

The Brooklyn Video Vortex operation "will be opening very soon," Hillis wrote, adding that it will honor Video Free Brooklyn customers' credits.

Alamo Brooklyn's Cristina Cacioppo declined to comment on the plans.

Video Vortex would be one of just a handful of movie rental stores left in New York City. Among the others are Videology in Williamsburg and the Upper East Side's Video Room.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)