Be Kind Rewind, an exhibition of new work by Michel Gondry, opens at Deitch Projects on February 16, 2008, shortly before his identically titled film is released in theaters.

Be Kind Rewind is a film about two childhood friends living in Pasaic, New Jersey, trying to make ends meet. After one of the characters accidentally gets his brain magnetized by trying to sabotage a local power plant, he visits the video store his friend is taking care of while the owner is away and unknowingly erases all of the video tapes in the store’s inventory. The characters decide to make their own homemade versions of popular films in a junkyard behind the store. These new “sweded” films—recreations using commonly available, everyday materials—prove more popular with the customers than the originals, making the two friends local celebrities.