About Us

Le Video, San Francisco's premiere alternative videotape and DVD rental store, was founded in 1980. The owner/founder had fallen in love with cinema while watching the late show on TV as a young girl in France, and had developed her passion during many late nights at the Cinematheque at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. After moving to San Francisco, she looked for some of those old B-movies and Foreign films on videotape. Discovering that most rental outlets were only interested in Hollywood blockbusters, she decided to hunt down the eclectic videos she wanted to see, and rent them to others from a small section in the photography supply store she owned. Eventually the video rental business outgrew the photo supply business, and Le Video, Inc was born.
 
Over time Le Video has expanded to include more than 90,000 rentals, served for a brief period as a part-time, weekend SPCA adoption center, and was featured in an episode of the TV show "Nash Bridges." In the early nineties, as new buyers were brought into the store, we began to acquire an unparalleled collection of Cult, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Independent films to complement our Classics and Foreign selection.We are still dedicated to the same mission that inspired the owner to put those first films out on her shelf at the photo supply store: Providing a comprehensive film selection that also features esoteric, under-seen, under-appreciated, and hard-to-find films that deserve to be seen. We search all over the world for movies that you can't find anywhere else, so that people who feel as strongly about movies as we do have a place to find the movies they love, and discover new cinematic passions.

This year we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary and would like to acknowledge that we could not have accomplished our mission without the loyalty of our customers.


In this day and age, when Netflix and Video On Demand dominate the entertainment market and when many stone and mortar stores including our counterpart in New York - Kim's Video - had to close their doors, we hope that you will make us your primary source of movies so that we can continue to provide you with an unparalleled selection for few more years. Renting only those hard to find titles from us will see this resource vanish. Though we do not get the tax breaks of non-profit, Le Video  has been run like a non-profit for many many years with the only purpose to cater to film connoisseurs and to our neighbors.


If you haven't been in recently, you really have to come down and see for yourself. We think it's more than just a video store, its an experience unlike any other. The recent addition of ONE WEEK RENTAL for all non new releases make it that much easier to rent from us. Watch what you want when you want and support local business ~ Catherine