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 defining artifact of American independent cinema, shot in black and white on a shoestring budget by Kevin Smith at the Quick Stop convenience store where he actually worked. Distributed after a stir at Sundance and picked up by Miramax, it became a touchstone for a generation of filmmakers who saw that a script built on dialogue, boredom, and retail purgatory could carry a feature. It helped launch the View Askewniverse and remains a reference point for low-budget storytelling done with wit rather than money.
This cell preserves the opening marker of that film, the card that announces Clerks itself before Dante and Randal ever appear on screen. A title card is the threshold moment of a picture, the frame where the name of the work is fixed before story begins. For collectors, this piece stands in for the whole idea of the film's birth, the exact instant its identity was declared to an audience for the first time.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Clerks (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
Not visible in this capture; the area beside the picture frames is obscured by the curvature and dark surround.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture; no legible manufacturer text, safety designation, or key numbers can be read.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight cool tint; the dye image reads as a fully saturated colour positive with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames show the same title-card graphic, consistent with a title sequence frame repeated across the strip, matching the film on record.
Era check
A colour positive 35mm print with this perforation pitch and saturated dye image is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, as expected for a 1994 title.
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 000063074
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
