Punk Vacation: An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast

This week, We're stoked to bring you a first time guest on the show, director of theatrical and special events for Vinegar Syndrome, Theresa Mercado! She's been with the company from their west coast beginnings in Brighton, Colorado and we get to spotlight the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at the warehouse, the opening of The Archive (now Vinegar Syndrome Denver) and the various events they throw at all their locations, and finally taking a deep dive into Vinegar Syndrome's ever-growing theatrical exhibitions with VSP titles!Afterwards, Chris and Eli took the Hurculean task of...

Summer subscriber week just wrapped up with a terrific mainline slate and some exciting sublabel announcements, including one of our new favorites, Reviver. So, who better to have on than friend of the show and VinSyn's lead archivist, Oscar Becher. After multiple delays, The Lady in White is finally here and we talk with Oscar about the painstaking work of restoring three different version of the film (it really did take a village)! We also discuss the rest of the VS lineup, which includes two exciting VSAs in 4K, and of course, Reviver 3! In keeping with the Reviver tradition we...

While Vinegar Syndrome's Halfway Subscriber Week has officially kicked off, we'll be talking about that in full next week with a special guest, so in the meantime we thought we'd spotlight one more OCN partner label with another one of our favorites, Kani Releasing! Co-founder Ariel Esteban Cayer joins Chris and Eli to talk about Kani's incredibly diverse catalogue, highlighting some the best in underseen Asian cinema, and how they've grown from their start as a blu-ray label to theatrical exhibition. We also get to chat about some of the early releases, highlight a few new ones, and going deep...

It's Episode 47 and we're continuing are focus on partner labels with another one of our favorites and a newcomer to OCN, Muscle Distribution, with founder Elizabeth Purchell! We talk with Liz about her work in film preservation, distribution, and a Kickstarter Muscle Distribution has launched to preserve and restore 4 films that have been long out of circulation! We highly encourage you to check out the details on the Kickstarter page and donate if you can and sign up for Muscle's newsletter that alerts you to any upcoming screenings in your town. And of course, check out Muscle's partner pages on...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.It's Episode 47 and we're continuing are focus on partner labels with another one of our favorites and a newcomer to OCN, Muscle Distribution, with founder Elizabeth Purchell! We talk with Liz about her work in film preservation, distribution, and a Kickstarter Muscle Distribution has launched to preserve and restore 4 films that have been long out of circulation! We highly encourage you to check out the details on the Kickstarter page and donate if...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 46, we're going up north and chatting with the co-founders of Canadian International Pictures, Jonathan Doyle and David Marriott! CIP has been a partner label for over 4 years and we talk about the company's formation, how they select titles, and the process of restoring and releasing them! We also highlight some of our favorite titles and discuss a very anticipated title for June, The Other French New Wave Volume 2! You can keep...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.On Episode 45, we're kicking off our first of a few partner label interviews for this month by welcoming back friend of the show Ross Snyder, co-founder of Saturn's Core Audio & Video! We talk about all things SOV, from preserving and restoring titles from tape masters, to highlighting some past releases and of course, discuss this month's release: Dead Hunt, the final film from regional director Don Dohler! You can follow SC on Instagram...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 44 we get our wings up, our scentific mondo clipboards out, pop on a classical piano nocturne and lock in on an epic journey through 7 VSL releases in April, 2 other sublabels, 2 mainline, and the OCN titles we could get to. We begin by reviewing the partner label titles that we bought during the first day of the sale and quickly pivot to all of the April releases. June is...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 43 we sit down with Kurtis Spieler. Kurtis is a key member of the restoration team at Vinegar Syndrome, but also is involved in many parts of behind the scenes production and even finds time to be a filmmaker. We talk about the Halfway to Black Friday surprise announcements, including a few that Kurtis played a major role in getting them out and ready to ship.  As always, Kurtis is an...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.Episode 42 is reviewing the May announcements that we know. In preparation for Halfway to Black Friday, VS has released a portion of their slate in addition to a new slate of OCN partner titles. We are joined by film historian Casey Scott and film and culture writer Gentry Austin who run the amazing Sin Syndicate podcast. Casey is on record saying he has known Joe Rubin since he was 16 years old, a...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.Episode 41 is Eli and I covering March titles in depth but most importantly it is sitting down with one of our heroes. Moviemaker, raconteur, philosopher, and now available on Shudder, Scooter McCrae joined Punk Vacation.Scooter is the actual best. Get this man into any discussion of the Mount Rushmore of moviemakers from history. He is takes the craft so seriously, and spends a lot of time in this conversation breaking...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.Episode 40 is one of the most in-depth and interesting conversations Punk Vacation has had on the language of physical media. That is not meant metaphorically, literally the subtitling and the importance of language and copywriting. Dino Proserpio does most of the subtitling work for VS and a lot of the copywriting. He's a polyglot and film historian, and was a fantastic interview.Eli and Chris both spend 3 hours geeking out with...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 39 Eli and I cover the Feburary announcements and determine if this Feb was better than last years. But before all of that, we are joined by one of the most exciting young filmmakers in the US, Kansas Bowling.I dare you to find anyone under 30 who loves film and loves talking about film as much as Kansas. She's obsessed, and her obsession naturally translates into a rich vocabulary of...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.Before kicking off episode 38, we've unearthed a lost discussion from the Punk Vacation archives, restored for your listening pleasure: Chris and Eli are joined by the lead archivist from Vinegar Syndrome, Oscar Becher, to talk about the second release from his new sublabel, Reviver! Like the releases themselves, we won't spoil anything here, you'll have to listen to find out what we talk about!Then, we return to our regularly schedule...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 37, Eli and Chris are back for Part 2 of the Valentine's Day special of Celeste's world famous "15 Minutes With You" segment. This will also be available on Celeste's YT channel if you want to see the video.Celeste can now say they are done with 2025. Jan and Feb titles will be featured on upcoming episodes of 15 Minutes With You. Also, huge congrats to Celeste who recently was finally able...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 36 we are fortunate to be able to sit down with one of the most exciting new voices in exploitation and horror, Alex Phillips. This dude loves genre movies, and we dig into All Jacked Up and Full of Worms and his new feature, Anything That Moves. I think everyone will enjoy hearing from this creative and darkly funny filmmaker. He gave us almost an hour, which was more than w...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 33 we are going to try something slightly different. Eli and Chris recorded an extended "15 Minutes With You" segment live on Celeste's YT channel back in December and we are going to use that as Part 1 of a 2-Part Valentine's Day Melusine special. Both Valentine's Day episodes will focus on the Melusine side of the house, and next week we will be back to also discuss what drops on the V...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 35 we finally sit down with the esteemed stepfather of the boutique physical media community, the most connected man on the internet, and future playgirl model, Ryan Verrill. In addition to the incredible community Ryan has built with the Disc-Connected, the podcast network and special features consortium he has established and grown with Someone's Favorite Productions, Ryan has also recently launched the longtime stealth project, Antenna Releasing.Ryan is...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 34 we welcome one of the giants of horror on IG, Jay Blake from A Fistful of Horrors. Jay is many things to the community of horror lovers online, but he is also complete on the VS mainline dating all the way back their initial Indiegogo campaign.I don't know whether to call him the Daiseke Beppu of horror and exploitation, or perhaps the Mr Rogers, whatever it is Jay...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.In Episode 32, we welcome back Brandon Upson. In addition to being employee #1 at Vinegar Syndrome, Brandon is the Lead scanning technician, Restoration Artist, and director / producer of the newly announced Iconoscope sublabel.It's clear Brandon loves movies, and throughout this interview I believe his passion for restoring and releasing so many movies every month. He's a wonderful advocate for Vinegar Syndrome, and knows a little to a lot about every release s...