The Gaylordsville resident hopes to offer something “a little more curated” to movie buffs with his new video store, Be Kind Movie Vault, which opened Oct. 24 on the lower level of The Hunt, a boutique at 20 Bank St.
“What I’m trying to do with Be Kind Movie Vault is for the average person who comes to see movies, there’s always going to be one or two discs or tapes that people look at and go, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe it. that you’ve got that, that’s the thing I’ve been looking for,” Cross said. “You’ll find something you’ve always been looking for in the format you’ve been looking for.”
Along with browsing movies on DVD, VHS and Blu-ray, customers can check out the array of movie trading cards, posters and other finds on display in the video store. Many of the movies sold in the Be Kind Movie Vault come from Cross’s collection and his searches through estate sales and thrift stores.
Customers can also check out The Be Kind Movie Vault Instagram pagee for more findings.
The Be Kind Movie Vault is open from 10am. until 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, from 10 am. until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and closed on Monday.
Rediscovering the movies
Cross said he considers himself a proud member of the “wonderful nerds, geeks and weirdos” who like to spend hours browsing video stores.
He said he does a lot of hunting for VHS tapes and DVDs at thrift stores, flea markets and stores like The Archive in Bridgeport. The best trips, Cross said, are the ones where movies are rediscovered.
“There are a lot of boutique Blu-ray companies,” Cross said. “I think what excites me now is when about every month, most of these companies will do a release or announce an upcoming release. One was ‘Fatal Games’ which I have on a VHS bootleg from years and years ago that I thought was lost and is finally coming out on a pristine Blu-ray.”
“I think as films like this get rediscovered, for me, that’s really exciting,” he said.
Cross has also written a blog about movies, “The After Movie Diner”, for about 14 years, which he said he likes to “find stuff that some people might have heard of and make it as mainstream and exciting as possible.”
Cross said turning his dream of opening a video store into reality started with a friend who asked him what he wanted to do as a career. Beyond his cinematic curiosity, Cross works building and maintaining websites for a non-profit Specialty Foods Association for nearly a decade.
Cross brought up the conversation with Gina Lacy, owner of The Hunt and a friend of his, and said Lacy suggested taking the position on the lower level of The Hunt.
The lower level of The Hunt already had a music store installed there, Cross said, adding that Lacey suggested he “take half of the music stand for now and see how it goes as a trial period.”
While the Be Kind Movie Vault has only been open for a few weeks, Cross said the store has received a lot of interest online with people offering collaborative ideas.
“My wife and I are members of the Chamber of Commerce, so we’re very serious about being local, community-driven, proud of New Milford, proud of Connecticut,” he said. “We want to nurture those talents and interests in the neighborhood as much as we can. We take that part seriously, we take being local and partnering with other businesses very seriously… I’ve always found that collaboration yields much better results than competition.”
Cross said his wife Kimberly Cross, who works in marketing for KTC Marketing, was contacted by the crew behind the horror thriller movie “Candlewood” which was shot in New Milford and is due out this year. Cross plans to reach out to the crew to have them in his shop to talk about the process of making local horror films.
Cross said he also hopes to work with Culture Club Art Tattoo Shop & Art House in town as well as the Connecticut Cult Horror Classics in Seymour.
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