Mike Vraney

Something Weird Video was founded in 1990 by Mike Vraney in Seattle He was inspired by his teenage job as a theater projectionist His love for the obscure films that never made it to video prompted him to transfer hundreds of ancient reels of film to VHS videotape and DVD On the company website Vraney explains the labels genesis In my mind the last great genre to be scavenged were the exploitation sexploitation films of the 1920s through the 1970s After looking into this further I realized that there were nearly 2000 movies out there yet to be discovered So with this for inspiration my quest began and wouldnt you know just out of the blue I fell into a large collection of 16 mm girlie arcade loops which became the first compilation videos we put together Around the same time I received an unexpected phone call that suddenly made all this real my future and handsdown the king of sexploitation Dave Friedman was on the other end of the line This would be the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship for both of us Daves films became the building blocks for our film collection and he has taught and guided me through the wonderful world of sexploitation introducing me to his colleagues Dan Sonney Harry Novak H G Lewis Bob Cresse and all the other colorful characters who were involved during his heyday and theyve been eager to dive into the business again On January 2 2014 Vraney died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer4 The company continues under the leadership of Vraneys widow Lisa Petrucci