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 shoestring black-and-white production shot largely after hours in the very Quick Stop where writer-director Kevin Smith worked, financed on credit cards and released through Miramax after a stir at Sundance. It became a founding text of American independent cinema in the nineties, prized for its dialogue-driven scenes, its comic-book digressions, and its refusal of studio polish. The film helped define a generation of low-budget filmmaking and introduced audiences to Dante, Randal, Jay, and Silent Bob.
This piece preserves the title card, the frame where the film announces itself before a story of two clerks, a convenience store, and a single long day begins. Title cards mark the threshold between production and narrative, the point where a movie states its name plainly and asks for attention. For a picture built on scrappy origins and word-of-mouth momentum, the card itself carries weight, a simple textual gesture that opened the door to an entire scene and sensibility that reshaped independent film distribution.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour optical-stereo 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; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run along the bottom edge beside the picture area, consistent with a stereo optical print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight cyan tint at the edges; the dye image reads as a warm, 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, indicating a title sequence held on consecutive frames, consistent with the Clerks (1994) title design.
Era check
A colour positive print with dual variable-area optical tracks and clear safety base is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print of Clerks (1994), which received a standard 35mm optical-stereo release.
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 000063076
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
