National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2019
“A hilarious, in-your-face, bawdy-yet-provocative look at two sardonic young slackers (Dante and Randal). One toils as a New Jersey convenience store clerk while his alter-ego video store friend works when the mood strikes him.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Kevin Smith
Studio
Miramax · View Askew Productions · 92 min
Box office
$3.2M worldwide on a $28K budget
Honors
Sundance Filmmaker Trophy Dramatic — 1 winAll 1 wins · 0 nominations on record
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Clerks arrived in 1994 as a black and white, no budget landmark shot largely inside a real Leonardo, New Jersey convenience store where Kevin Smith worked. Picked up by Miramax after a Sundance breakthrough, it became a defining piece of American independent cinema, proving that sharp dialogue and everyday settings could outpace studio polish. Its success helped launch the View Askewniverse and cemented Smith as a voice for slacker era filmmaking, giving low budget storytelling new commercial credibility throughout the nineties.
This cell preserves a Quick Stop Customer, one of the many anonymous shoppers who drift through Dante Hicks's counter across the film's single day. These figures are central to Clerks's structure, each interaction building the store's rhythm of boredom, absurdity, and offhand philosophy. Collectors value such cells because they capture the texture of retail life the film is built on, rather than a marquee character. As a piece of 35mm history, it represents the ordinary human traffic that gives Clerks its documentary feeling grounded charm.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm black-and-white optical release print of Clerks (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a mono or stereo optical release print.
Edge print
Dollar-sign symbols ('$') and dash characters ('-') are visible in yellow along the upper edge; full key-number sequence is not fully legible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-green tint typical of safety acetate or polyester stock; the dye image reads as neutral black-and-white silver, with no visible colour shift or fading.
Projection history
Light vertical scratches are visible running through the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive black-and-white image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with the black-and-white photography of the film on record.
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, black-and-white silver dye image, and acetate-tinted base are all consistent with a 1990s theatrical release print of a low-budget black-and-white feature.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063061
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
