SOMETHING WEIRD THIS WAY COMES: Mike Vraney (1957–2014)

This career reassessment of the late Mike Vraney argues that his independent mail-order company, Something Weird Video, became one of the most historiographically important video labels through its attention to finding and releasing countless adult, exploitation, and ephemeral films otherwise neglected by most archives and historians. Although Vraney prioritized access and campy fun over serious preservation or restoration, his entrepreneurial acumen nevertheless inspired a new generation of niche video distributors and allowed a wide swath of American film history to be seen and earnestly reconsidered by scholars.