Queen Video

Entering Queen Video is like embarking on a treasure hunt. There are more than 60,000 movies from around the world spread out across the store, with the newest ones plastered along the front walls. The bins on the floor carry foreign films, Westerns, classics and even university-style courses on the brain or space exploration.

Howie Levman, owner of Queen Video, is the star of the show. He is shelving the newly arrived DVDs, casually dressed in a green T-shirt, shorts and hiking boots. He smiles crookedly as he comments on the bounty. “I’m excited – the new movies are the lifeblood of the business.”

Howie’s passion for movies dates back to his university days when he was studying commerce. He found his courses tiresome. Rather than study for exams, Howie watched movies. “I had the ability to forget there was an outside world – I could just lose myself  in the stories,” he remembers. Howie opened a stereo store after graduating but discovered that the only part of the business he enjoyed was the single shelf of movies. Within a year he reinvented the store as Queen Video.