An indie film production from Edmonton, Alberta presents a captivating story centered on a nostalgic video rental store. The film achieved remarkable success, selling out every screening at the Edmonton International Film Festival 2025 and earning the REMI Award for Best Comedy at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival 2025.
Last Stop Video Rentals Summary:
The day is May 19th, in the year 1999, a day that would see the new release of Star Wars: Episode 1. Nick Young is a mid 20 something year old college dropout who’s life is going nowhere fast. The only thing he has to look forward to in life is marrying his long time girlfriend, Deandre, and being one of the first to watch The Phantom Menace.
Nick’s plans are dashed and destroyed all in the same day as Deandre is nowhere to be found as she decides to end things. On top of that he’s called in to work to cover for the missing Manager of the store. Nick is now stuck with no girl, possibly no movie, a new job, and a whole staff of slackers.
His best friend and the longest running employee of the store, Dave, is the ultimate slacker. He loves movies and working at the video store was the most obvious option to his slacker lifestyle. Melanie is stuck in a rut and wants out but money is restricting her from leaving. Chloe has the money, wants to leave, but can’t because she’s still in high school. If Dave is the king of Slackers, JD is his Clown Prince of Slacking off.
As the day continues they are subjected to crazy customers, Nick keeping his breakup secret, and each others sanity. In this time each employee goes through some life changing event that allows them to see a life outside the store. Well except for Dave who’s entire life is the store and his fellow employees his family.
About the Director:
Eric Janvier is a multi-hyphenate filmmaker who has found space in both the narrative and documentary fields. He trained at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, California. Upon graduation, he worked on the award-winning pilot episode of APTN’s Blackstone in a mentorship role.
Eric was the producer of the imagineNATIVE award-winning short film Gods Acre, which went on to screen at numerous festivals across the globe including its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. He co-produced a campaign in partnership with Marvel and Avengers Endgame that appeared both online and in Times Square.
Eric also wrote and directed Reserved, which was broadcast on the CBC’s Short Film Face Off. He most recently was one of the producers of Cody Lightnings Directorial Debut Hey Viktor!, a spiritual sequel to Smoke Signals. Eric has written several TV pilots and was a finalist for the TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award in 2017, the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative in both 2021 and 2022 The Inaugural WarnerMedia Access Festivals initiative at TIFF and the TIFF Filmmakers Lab in 2023. Eric is currently in Post Production for his feature film directorial debut Last Stop Video Rentals slated for release Spring 2025.
