Return to tiff.’s home page

Canadian Film Encyclopedia

Shopping Cart
 

Vinyl


Year: 2000
Language: English
Runtime: 110 min
Director: Alan Zweig
Producer: Greg Klymkiw, Alan Zweig
Executive Producer: Bruce McDonald
Cinematographer: Alan Zweig
Editor: Christopher Donaldson
Cast: Don McKellar, Guy Maddin, Alan Zweig, Bruce LaBruce, Harvey Pekar, Geoff Pevere, Alan Williams
Production Company: Vinyl Productions

Vinyl is a penetrating, almost disturbing film about the compulsions of an anti-social cadre of quirky hobbyists who collect vinyl records. Director Alan Zweig’s personal, comic exploration of guilt and obsessive behaviour is conveyed through clever semantics and philosophical musings. He talks to fellow collectors such as Atom Egoyan and Don McKellar, to a guy who wants to collect every record ever made, and to a fellow whose apartment is so full of records he has to move them to get into bed at night. Five years in the making and similar in spirit to Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb (1994) and Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March (1986), Vinyl portrays a personal attempt by one lonely man to discover whether anyone shares his obsession, and what the psychic costs are of his pursuits.