Raizine (Rai) Bruton and Jules Larson in 2022, at the first screening of BVFCC's “Portrait of a Cinema on Fire: Feminist Filmmakers" series. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
When Raizine Bruton started working at Best Video Film and Cultural Center (BVFCC) three years ago, it became the cultural lifeline and vibrant third place she wished she'd had as a kid. Now—as a mom, a lifelong cinephile, and a nonprofit leader—she's asking the community to help keep the doors open for generations to come.
Bruton, who is the acting executive director at Best Video, made that case in an emergency appeal Monday, with the news that the beloved Hamden arts hub would need to raise $50,000 in eight weeks or less. As the organization's future hangs in the balance, community members have rallied to support it, putting their dollars behind a small Spring Glen storefront that has hosted film clubs, concerts, pop-up bakeries, artist markets, celebrations of local fiction, and dozens of on-site and remote cinematic collaborations.
As of Thursday evening, BVFCC had raised $37,548, with over 400 donors. This winter marks Best Video's 40th anniversary year, a testament to a space that has continued to adapt with the digital age. Donate here.
"I've lived in New Haven all my life and I never had a space like this," Bruton said in a phone call Thursday morning, as her young daughter babbled softly in the background. "I can't imagine how wonderful it would have been to be in this safe space as a kid. It's a place where literally everyone feels welcome."
It is the latest financial chapter for the storefront in four decades that have weathered the rise of DVDs and Blu-rays, streaming services, and a global pandemic that vastly changed how Americans were (and are) consuming media, including film and video. In 2015, it became a nonprofit in its 30th anniversary year. Two years later, Best Video sent out a similar appeal, explaining that it had fallen behind on vendor payments. Within days, the community had rallied, saving the then-nascent nonprofit from financial insolvency.
This time, the ask comes as arts nonprofits across the region—and the country—run on increasingly thin margins, a result of endangered and pulled federal funding, fewer available grants, and pandemic relief dollars that are precipitously drying up. In the past few years, Best Video has grown its footprint with new partnerships and collaborations, trying to balance its role as a “third place” for Hamdenites and New Haveners with the financial strain of staff and expanded programming.
This year alone, BVFCC's budget is $460,052, which covers ten staff members (seven are part-time and three are full-time), general operating support, and weekly programming that ranges from concerts to film screenings to a Queer Film Club now in its second season. In the next week alone, for instance, there are screenings in Fairfield, Westville, and at Best Video; jazz and indie rock concerts, and a reading series. While some of the events are ticketed, Best Video covers most of the costs, like film rights and operating its cafe to provide food and drink during the event.
Meanwhile, annual rent comes in at $48,468, a number that is not insignificant, Bruton said. While some of the budget is covered by a tiered membership structure, BVFCC still relies heavily on grants and donations, the former of which have seemed fewer and farther between in recent years.
"I've already made cuts to some of the programming," Bruton said. "This money will give us a little bit of breathing room to help us become sustainable. This is going to give us the space to make the changes that we need to make to stay open another 40 years."
Bruton is optimistic for the future, she added—and not just because donations have been pouring in. In the last few years, she’s seen firsthand how Best Video brings people together, for events and festivals and movie rentals, as well as for coffee dates and meetings that turn the space into a de facto office and coworking space.
“It's like Hamden's living room,” she said. On any given day, customers will linger in the store, and offer to watch her daughter for a while so Bruton can work uninterrupted. She’s heard spirited debates around film and politics without a single raised voice. The coffee—Willoughby’s—still draws a crowd in an area bereft of cafes.
“Everyone doesn't agree, but we respect one another … you do feel like family,” she said.
Ashley LaRue, an organizer for East Rock House and founder of Qommunity, stressed the importance of a place like Best Video for groups like Queer Film Club, of which she is a member and organizer. When the club first got off the ground in 2023, BVFCC’s then-Director Julie Smith welcomed the group into the space with open arms.
The rest was history: screenings are often packed to the gills, and attendees get there early to mix and mingle. Last year, LaRue recalled, BVFCC also made it possible to hold offsite, outdoor screenings at Spring Glen Church and Massaro Farm in Woodbridge.
“It’s become a little staple, especially as a third space, especially for queer and trans people,” LaRue said. “It's just become a little hub for us. We're really looking forward to them keeping their doors open and us continuing to do what we need to do.”
“I just love it there,” she added a few moments later. “It would just be a real shame for us to lose a space like Best Video. We don't really have that many spaces like that. Even though it's not exclusive to us, it feels like it's for us.”
Lyric Hall founder and owner John Cavaliere, who partnered with BVFCC on a screening series that started last fall, echoed that feeling in a phone call Thursday afternoon. Born and raised in Spring Glen, he fell in love with Best Video during its early years, and has remained a staunch supporter of its work since. In its four decades, he’s watched it brave the transition from VHS to DVD to digital, miraculously bouncing back every time.
Almost a decade ago, he installed a Best Video drop box at his Whalley Avenue space, to encourage Westvillians to attend and rent from the store more often and save them the trip back. He’s also known Bruton for years, through her previous jobs at Edge of the Woods and the Criterion Bow Tie Cinema downtown.
So he was thrilled last year, when she helped him dream up the idea of screenings in his once-bustling cabaret theater. The two plan to show Mullholland Drive next Tuesday, in a tribute to the late David Lynch.
“I think it's just a treasure,” he said. “I think we're very lucky to have Best Video. All the people who work there are wonderful … they've got a big footprint and I think it's great for our community.”