SOMETHING WEIRD VIDEO

Lately I have rediscovered one of my old inspirations in visual art. Something Weird Video is an American film distributor company based in Seattle, Washington. They specialize in exploitation films. 

Exploitation films where made from the 20s to the 70s and were typically low in budget. These kinds of films have cult followings and can be classed as B movies. They are very aesthetically pleasing to me as well as some what comforting.
Something Weird Video was founded in 1990 by Mike Vraney in Seattle. His job as a projectionist at a theater is said to have inspired him to create a catalog of obscure films that never made it to video.

'In my mind, the last great genre to be scavenged were the exploitation/sexploitation films of the '30s through the '70s. After looking into this further, I realized that there were nearly 2,000 movies out there yet to be discovered. So with this for inspiration, my quest began and wouldn't you know, just out of the blue I fell into a large collection of 16 mm girlie arcade loops (which became the first compilation videos we put together).' - Vraney

These videos include sub gernes such as: burlesque and striptease shows, nudist exposes and features, drug and driver's education shorts, stag and peepshow loops, softcore and hardcore shorts and features, sword-and-sandal spectaculars, spaghetti westerns, TV rarities, jungle films and films featuring all-black casts. Some other genres within exploitation cinema were: rape and revenge films, cannibal films and slashers.

I am particularly in love with the content based on sex and sexuality as this is an area i am personally inspired by as a female. I find it interesting to compare the way women looked back then to how women look today in the sex industry. One thing i like about the videos back then where the fact the female body was portrayed a lot more realistically then it is now and i find that personally more empowering to watch. I find my self feeling a lot sexier then i would watching generic porn on a website today. I found a quote from Vraney about this comparison.

All the kids in porn [today] look like aliens. They have no hair. They have breast implants. They really look like they came from another planet. While in the sexploitation movies they’re busty and sexy and they have hips—and there’s such a nostalgia for body hair.

A lot of these films where generally exhibited in grind house and adult movie theaters.Around the time of these films sexual content wasn't as easy to find as it is now and thats another reason why these types of films are special and unique. 

Something Weird Video is really one of my favorite things at the moment and i think anyone interested in this sort of thing should go and check out their collection here. They also have a youtube channel which contains some great videos.