Left to Right: Eli Luna, Vianca Vega, Chad Pierce
Video Crypt
Founded in 2021 by Chad Pierce, Vianca Vega, and Eli Luna, the Video Crypt is an art installation that focuses on the lost period of video store magic when people strolled the aisles to plan what movies they would watch that weekend. Maybe with family, a special date, or just hanging out with friends, you can experience that again at the Video Crypt. Large corporate entities owning streaming services and pushing their media have lost the art of a video store clerk curating your tastes and being more social with local cinephiles. The Video Crypt’s mission is to help bring back what was once a staple of our culture to our community.
Curators of year 5 of the Video Crypt
Meet the curators for year 5 of the Video Crypt at Rubber Gloves in Denton
About Chad
About Eli
A Dallas native, a film enthusiast, and a projectionist. As a collector for most of their life, Chad has largely focused on VHS as a vehicle to a simpler time, when things were much more accessible to all. They hope to cultivate a community and serve as a hub for like-minded folks interested in physical media, genre film, and the art of cinema. Most importantly, Chad likes to remind everyone that comes to the Video Crypt to slow down, spend an hour wandering down the aisles, find something you’ve never heard of, talk to others and get recommendations. Rebuild that community.
Chad is currently a projectionist on all film formats from 8mm to 70mm, and is also IMAX certified. As a freelance projectionist, he travels to theatres around the country that require the dying art of physical film presentation. His personal collection of physical media, including film prints, has allowed Chad to have a micro-cinema presentations and he hopes to bring more to the Dallas area.
Eli has been a Dallas area resident for 30 years and brings his passion for physical media and preservation to The Video Crypt. A life-long cinephile, his VHS collection started in the Rio Grande Valley where he grew up. Witnessing video stores closing one after another during his time in Art School, he resolved to someday bring back that Friday night feeling of walking down the those aisles flanked by rows of VHS cover art. He is currently a video game developer in the Dallas area.
Eli is also the co-founder of the Dallas VHS Swap. The Dallas VHS Swap is in its 9th year and continues to do bi-monthly VHS Swaps all around the DFW area. He is the co-host of the Top Shelf Video Podcast with his older brother in Austin. They discuss movies they rented growing up in thier local video store and reminisce about a time when planning a trip to the video store was a social event to look forward to, before streaming took over our televisions and our attention.