Like many movie-loving, nostalgic south Minneapolitans, Sierra Parham still misses Movies on 35th, the Powderhorn video store that closed its doors in 2018.
“It was so community-focused,” Parham says. She remembers how owner Tim Hanson seemed to know everybody, how as a cinephile or a neighbor (or both) you felt welcomed just walking through his doors.
Minneapolis hasn’t had a video rental store since Movies on 35th closed, and the greater metro area has been without one since Video Universe in Robbinsdale shuttered in 2023.
The latter closing is what inspired the movie-loving Parham to dream up Saturn Video, a new video store and cafe, about three years ago. “Hearing the news that this was the last one, it kind of just broke my heart,” she says. She dedicated herself to launching Saturn Video in earnest last year after being laid off from her job.
Parham is thinking of her video-rental operation in stages. For now, Saturn Video operates on a pop-up basis, selling movies and merch at markets to raise funds for the physical store in addition to hosting movie screenings. (She’s also accepting tax-deductible donations, made possible by fiscal sponsor Springboard for the Arts, via GiveMN.) She’s currently working with another local organization, Dream Chambers Public Access, to find a shared space for their respective organizations.
“Long term, I want it to be its own space: part video store, part cafe, so there’s a place for the community to meet and talk about movies or just talk,” Parham says. She envisions Saturn Video as a third space that’s centered around movies and her parameters for the location of the store aren’t super strict; she’d love to be located near a movie theater, where there’s already a built-in moviegoing crowd, but that’s not an explicit requirement.
It would be nice, though, since she hopes Saturn Video will be open late so you can pop in and get a drink and talk for a bit after you see a movie. Eventually, she’d like to host screenings in the shop—not just studio films, but work from local filmmakers and emerging writers and directors.
The name, Saturn Video, was born from Parham’s Saturn return. For the non-astrologically inclined, this is when the planet Saturn returns to where it was at the time you were born; it happens first during your late twenties, and it’s a period of reflection and increased clarity on what you want and who you are as an individual. This period was a tumultuous time for Parham, but something beautiful came out of it: the certainty that she wanted to open a video store.
Perhaps you’re thinking to yourself, “Hm, feels like I’m seeing an awful lot of stories about renting movies in Racket lately.” You’re not wrong, hypothetical reader! Almost exactly a year ago, we profiled Sloppy Discs, which brings pop-up Blu-ray rentals to breweries and movie theaters around town; last month, we wrote about The Video Store MPLS, which will kick off a fundraising campaign for its brick-and-mortar rental operation beginning in August.
“We’ve all met together a couple times now,” Parham says of the members of this little rental niche, adding that their informal gatherings have been largely facilitated by John Moret, Trylon lead programmer and Cult Film Collective co-founder. (Cult Film Collective has rented out movies for years via Ant Hill Video.) “Someone called it the ‘Video Rental Guild,’ and I was like ‘Yeah, that makes sense,’” she laughs.
But each operation is a little different. “I definitely want to focus more on diverse films, films from marginalized directors and writers, that kind of stuff—things that are typically overlooked,” Parham says. These are also the kind of films she most enjoys watching in her personal life.
Her favorite flick, or the one she recommends most often? It’s also one of this writer’s personal favorites: Josie and the Pussycats. Parham says many of her personal favorites are a lot like that underrated 2001 anti-music-industry comedy: “funny, weird, really femme.”
You can follow along with Saturn Video on Instagram, where Parham posts updates about pop-ups and screenings. This month, she’ll be at a July 11 Bastille Day market at Cafe Marguerite in Minneapolis and hosting a July 15 screening of the new movie You, Me, and Tuscany starring Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page.
