Third Window Films and Terracotta Distribution loses majority of stock in Sony Warehouse fire

by Chris MaGee

As many of you may already know the streets of London have been taken over by rioters and looters this past week. The violence began on August 6th shortly after a peaceful protest was held in the London neighbourhood of Tottenham, the site of the shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. Quickly the protest devolved into an all out riot, some saying spurred on by £80 billion cuts to social services, and in the days since gangs have not only spread out across London, but riots have been reported in other cities throughout the UK. Amongst the numerous businesses that have been targeted by vandals was the Sony warehouse in Enfield, North London. The three-storey facility was burnt to the ground by rioters on Monday night and 32 million CDs and vinyl recorders by 150 indie record labels including XL, 4AD, Beggars, Domino and Rough Trade were among them. It wasn't just the independent music scene that has suffered a horrible blow by the destruction of the Enfield Sony Warehouse though. Two DVD distributors that many fans of Asian and Japanese film will know very well.

Third Window Films, which distributes such films as Sion Sono's "Love Exposure", Tetsuya Nakashima's "Kamikaze Girls" and Gen Takahashi's "Confessions of a Dog", and Terracotta Distribution, the distributor of Takao Nakano's "Big Tits Zombie", both used the Enfield Sony warehouse as their primary storage facility. Consequently the fire destroyed the majority of their DVD stock. Adam Torel, president of Third Window Films, revealed that this amounted to 20,000 units, a loss that could close the doors on one of the best Asian DVD labels operating today.

The loss of Third Window Films and Terracotta Distribution does not have to happen though. While a huge portion of both companies' stock went up in flames in Enfield there is still DVD stock available through online retailers like Amazon UK, as well as in numerous video and music stores throughout the United Kingdom. We at the J-Film Pow-Wow are encouraging each and every one of our readers to purchase at least one DVD from Third Window Films and Terracotta Distribution in the coming days to help these two amazing companies keep their doors open. Both companies are not mega-corporations. Far from it, in fact they are operated almost single-handedly by Adam Torel (Third Windows) and Joey Terracotta (Terracotta Distributions). They need our support, so follow the links above to check out the full catalogues for both, then start shopping!

Thanks to Billboard for details on this story.