LOS ANGELES — The decline of physical formats like DVDs and Blu-ray among mainstream entertainment consumers has paradoxically resulted in an unexpected feast of availability for cult, fringe and obscure movies, both via streaming and VOD services and specialty Blu-ray for collectors — a phenomenon that also includes the classics from the Golden Age of pornography (and erotica) in the 1970s and ’80s.
The trend resulted in odd finds like long-unavailable Walerian Borowczyk’s „Eurotica“ classics being unexpectedly beamed into Apple TVs worldwide via Netflix, or a confusing collection of random Italian giallo or 1950s Japanese film noir being snuck into homes via Amazon Prime.
In the world of adult the digitally remastered resurrection of many titles that were only whispered about in the days of exclusively physical releases, resulted in mainstream VOD services like HotMovies striking deals with restoration houses and cult movies distributors, and indie powerhouses like Pink & White Productions‘ streaming service PinkLabel.tv deputizing an experienced art house curator to buttress their LGBT erotic classics menu.
XBIZ spoke with HotMovies’ Mike Kennedy and PinkLabel.tv’s classics curator Jenni Olson about this trend, which is both important in historical/archival terms, and as a way to remonetize rights holders’ dormant IPs.
‚It’s Like History or a Time Machine‘
HotMovies‘ Mike Kennedy pointed out the pioneering work in getting these vintage titles out done by DistribPix, a film archive dedicated to independent restoration and distribution since the mid-1960s.
“We noticed DistribPix was probably the first company to start exploiting these vintage titles,
