National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Clerks was written and directed by Kevin Smith and released in 1994 through Miramax Films after its celebrated debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Shot on a budget of roughly twenty-seven thousand dollars, the black and white feature became a defining work of the American independent cinema movement of the nineties, launching Smith's View Askewniverse and establishing a new template for low-budget, dialogue-driven filmmaking.

This cell, titled Jay and Silent Bob, captures the duo who became the recurring heart of Smith's fictional universe. The sideways orientation on the strip is characteristic of how 35mm frames read along the reel, and the adjacent duplicate reflects standard printing continuity. Both Jay and Silent Bob are visible within the black and white frame, making this a direct piece of their first screen appearance together.