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 calling card for independent cinema, shot on a shoestring budget by Kevin Smith at the actual convenience store where he worked. Distributed by Miramax after a breakout run at Sundance, it became a touchstone for a generation of low-budget filmmakers, proving that sharp dialogue and lived-in settings could outmuscle production polish. Its portrait of retail purgatory, slacker philosophy, and rapid-fire banter set the template for the View Askewniverse that followed, and the film's quotability and rough-hewn charm still anchor discussions of 1990s American independent film.
This cell carries the name of the setting itself, the Quick Stop, the store that gives the whole film its reason for being. As a location rather than a single character, it stands in for the entire world of the picture, the counter, the register, the shelves that Dante Hicks tends through a single impossibly long day. For collectors, a piece tied to the Quick Stop represents the film's core identity, the ordinary storefront elevated into a landmark of independent filmmaking, a plain backdrop that became inseparable from the story told in front of it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm optical-track positive 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 holes appear cleanly cut with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area.
Edge print
Partial text readable as 'KU' is visible at the upper edge; remaining edge print is not fully legible in this capture.
Base & colour
The base appears with a slight cyan-teal tint along the edges, consistent with a colour safety base; the image itself is rendered in black-and-white silver dye.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across 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 and are consistent with the known black-and-white photography of the film on record.
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, colour safety base with cyan edge tint, and black-and-white silver image are all consistent with a 35mm release print from the mid-1990s production period of Clerks (1994).
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 000063086
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
