Lights, camera, action!
Even though you can’t go to the theatres, Reo’s is trying to bring the theatres to you. Reo’s video is now re-opened after a year of being closed, which Manager and Curator, Cole Johnston, said was a long and difficult year.
“I purchased it back in 2015 and in 2020, obviously we had to shut down because of covid. Right after that, we lost our location because the building got sold. So that meant it was kind of a double whammy, so I had to think on my feet really quickly.”
In part of the re-opening, Civic Theatre bought the movie store with the nudge from Johnston.
“They were actually the first people I thought of, as soon as I lost my space and I was scrambling to think what can I do, and I need to keep Reo’s within the community. So I reached out to the Civic Theatre and luckily they were really excited about the idea of having a movie library still in nelson and having it part of the theatre.”
When asked about how they were going to manage the pandemic within the store, Johnston said it will be tricky with the measures in place but it looking forward to the process.
“We have a new system of sanitizing disks when they come in and we have a lot of safety measures now because it is a tactile business. But the library itself is the exact same size, we didn’t have to get rid of anything in the move.”
Being in the movie industry, Johnston shared his two recommendations which happen to be his favorite and, in his opinion, the best movie of all time: Suspiria and Mulholland Drive.
Reo’s has been in Nelson since 1987 where it was previously located at Burrells on Stanley street, and according to Johnston has changed ownership many times throughout the store near 35-year history.
The new re-opened Reo’s is at 225 Hall Street and to start, their hours are 1:30-7:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday while also offering a new online catalog which has roughly 18,000 movies to choose from.
MORE: Reo’s Video Catalog (Reo’s Video)
