The Smiths’ Inspired Movie “Shoplifters of The World” Filmed in Troy

By Lomie Blum, News Editor

By Nolan Cleary, Editor-in-Chief

“Shoplifters of the World,” a new movie written and directed by critically acclaimed and Sundance award-winning writer, director, and documentarian Stephen Kijak was filmed in Troy and features local Troy landmark the River Street Beat Shop record store.

Kijak is best known for directing music documentaries on artists such as Judy Garland, the Rolling Stones, Scott Walker, and the Backstreet Boys. He discussed shooting the movie, his return to narrative, and filming in Troy.

“I loved [Troy]. I just loved it. It was a really fun experience,” Kijak stated. “It’s got really great vintage architecture. And, you know, it’s this little small city streets feel of another time, you know, and some of the houses and neighborhoods just felt like, you know, we had stepped back into the 80s.”

Kijak also talked about how he discovered Troy.

“Some local crew who were from the area and I know a lot of production is moving into the Hudson Valley area. I just kept going up and looking at Troy and Albany, it hasn’t been filmed too much and it’s got a beautiful time capsule feel,” Kijak said.

The most notable Troy location in the film is The River Beat Shop, a record store. The store is where The Smiths fan who infiltrates the radio station works, and where fans go because he lets they shoplift them without notifying anybody.

“You know, like that record store. I mean, that’s right there in Troy, almost as if it’s like the coolest place to be, Beat Street records.”

Jim Barrett the owner of the River Street Beat Shop and HVCC alumni discussed what it was like having the film shot in his store.

“Somebody fell in love with the store, they absolutely loved it. They said it was the most authentic record shop they’d seen in years. You know it’s kind of a throwback. And then Stephen came in personally,” Barrett said.

Barrett reflected on the first time seeing the film and how it presents the store.

“We saw the movie. You get kind of goosebumps because it was the reason we must have been doing something right. Because there’s so much of what they shot still here. You know, it’s not like they took everything out of here and they shot the movie with all this stuff. And it’s pretty cool. The story really made me very happy and my son, who is my [business] partner,” Barrett said.

“Stephen Kijak is one of the best film directors in the country, and his key thing is the music. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to movies and music,” Barrett added.

Despite being filmed in Troy, the movie takes place in Denver because the story is loosely based on an urban myth about the aftermath of the breakup of the band, The Smiths. The film follows four friends partying to mourn the breakup of their favorite and beloved band, The Smiths. At the same time as this night of celebration and loss occurs, another passionate fan infiltrates a radio station with a gun holding the disc jockey hostage forcing him only to play Smiths’ songs. 

The movie stars Helena Howard, James Bloor, Nick Krause, and Elena Kampouris and features the music of Manchester post-punk and new wave band, The Smiths. 

The Smiths are an English and post-punk band formed in 1982 by lead vocalist Morrissey, and guitarist Johnny Marr. Many of the Smiths’ lyrics include topics such as death, isolation, veganism, and unrequited emotions along with jangly guitars as a musical backdrop. The band broke up in 1987. However, their influence can be heard in artists such as Oasis, The Killers, and Radiohead along with a deeply devoted fanbase still obsessing to this day. BBC News’ Ian Youngs once stated that The Smiths were “the band that inspired deeper devotion than any British group since the Beatles.” 

On the inspiration Kijak comments, “the inciting incident of the holdup is an urban myth based on something that almost happened in Denver at that time. A fan truly wanted to hold up a radio station at gunpoint and force The Smiths on the air. He never did it. He actually chickened out, but was literally in the parking lot with his rifle and had a security guard call the police on him, to get him to help that he very much needed at the time.”

“That little story over the years blossomed into this myth of an actual holdup,” Kijak explained.

Kijak also expressed his personal connection to The Smiths film, coming of age in the eighties, and queerness which is a major theme explored throughout the movie.

“I didn’t really come out until I was in college, so there’s this image of queerness in the eighties because it’s very personal, you know, I think it’s really kind of hard to explain,” Kijak said

“We had other modes of expression, you know, like our tribal connections to music. And, you know, the new wave gave us a whole new palette. We could express ourselves sometimes our sexuality or even our confusion about our sexuality through the bands we listen to, the clothes we wore, or the people we would hang out with,” Kijak said.

“There was a lot of freedom to kind of explore ourselves without having to necessarily name it,” Kijak added.

“I wanted to kind of capture that because I think within the friendships there was a lot more understanding that might not have been fully expressed, but it was there, you know?” Kijak said.

“I was one of those kids [in the movie]. I mean, I am a first-generation new waver, and I grew up in that time, and there was like a bomb going off [in my] life,” Kijak explained.

“Shoplifters of the World” was released on March 26th.