The subplots stemming from last week’s six-alarm fire on Queen West between Bathurst and Portland are legion, and there are still plenty of unknowns — chief among them what exactly happened to spark the blaze that razed an entire city block. But Daniel Hanna, the long-time manager of Suspect Video’s now-obliterated Queen West location, is sure of one thing: he could really use a copy of Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist. “Technically,” notes Hanna by telephone, “the Province of Ontario won’t let me have that title. But still.…”
He isn’t kidding — about his desire to procure that particular film or about its illegality — but he does seem remarkably good-humoured for a man whose business went up in smoke just one week ago. Hanna has posted an explanation for his even-keel attitude on his new blog (www.500wattbrain.blogspot.com): “Let me put it this way,” reads the first entry. “When the radiator in the apartment upstairs leaked and ruined $200 worth of product, I got angry… when an elemental force of such ferocious intensity completely obliterated everything that I had poured 110 per cent of blood, sweat and tears into over the last 12 years of my life… well… if I didn’t find a way to laugh about it, I’d be dead right now.”
Hanna isn’t taking things lying down: in between the inevitable meetings with the insurance company (“At this point, there isn’t anything to talk about even if I could. It’s going to be a slow process. It’s insurance.”) he’s spearheading a DVD-donation drive with an eye towards creating a new “video and culture shop” on Queen West. Full details are available on the blog (or on Facebook at the Suspect Video RIP group), but the gist of it is this: if you have any DVDs of any kind that you’d like to contribute, you can leave them at Rotate This (620 Queen W.).
A good idea, surely, but some of the films lost in the fire were irreplaceable. How many? Hanna isn’t sure. “Without access to the computer, it’s impossible,” he says. “The rental database is lost. I’ve been there for 12 years and I’ve curated the collection for the last seven. I have a mental picture of the stock but it’s not like I have a PDF.” Off the top of his head, he mentions several out-of-print Criterion Collection titles, like the original, extras-laden edition of RoboCop, as things he doubts he’ll ever see again.
As for the new store — whatever and wherever it may be — it has the blessing of Suspect Video’s owner, Luis Ceriz: Hanna says that he’s still very much in touch with Suspect’s other location in the Mirvish Village. “We have a healthy friendship. When [Luis and I] spoke about it, I said I would like to try to shoot for doing something sooner rather than later. That’s why I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.” Speaking of which, if anyone reading this happens to have a copy of Les Blank’s 1960 short Running Around Like A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off… well, you know what to do.