A middle-aged man with short, graying hair and glasses smiles slightly while sitting in a leather chair against a dark, out-of-focus background.

Kassem

Music saved his live. Then he saved the music.


Chad Kassem's obsessions have taken him from the depths of addiction to the heights of the music industry. In 1982, a drug-related arrest gave him a choice: prison or a halfway house in Kansas. Leaving the bayou behind, he replaced dealing drugs with dealing vinyl records. His obsessive personality kicked in and laid the foundation for a music empire. Today he records, remasters, and manufactures what many consider the best-sounding music on the planet, all from a small town in the middle of the country. 

Client
  • Vignette Original
Our Role
  • Story Development
  • Film Production
  • Post-Production
Deliverable
  • Feature Documentary

The music

The film will be as much an audio experience as a visual one, bringing to life the music that is Chad’s lifeblood and the core of his work and preservation efforts. 

An elderly Black man with a graying mustache and afro, wearing a baseball cap and tinted sunglasses, sings while playing an acoustic guitar.
A woman with blonde hair wearing an orange t-shirt examines a vinyl record in her hands, while a blurred man stands in the background of the workshop.
A focused man with locs wears headphones while playing a semi-hollow body guitar in a studio, sitting near a musician with a red cap and a foreground figure with silver hair.
A man wearing glasses and a dark zip-up jacket sits on a striped couch with his hand resting on his forehead while looking upward.
A man in a red sweater packs vinyl records into a U-Haul cardboard box within a room filled with floor-to-ceiling wooden shelving units densely packed with record albums.
A close-up profile shot captures a man with dark skin and a beard, looking slightly upward while speaking against a soft, out-of-focus background with warm yellow light.
A middle-aged woman with short blonde hair and glasses sits in a theater chair, gesturing while speaking to someone off-camera.
A close-up, low-angle shot of a Shure phono cartridge with a blue faceplate tracking a vinyl record, with its needle resting precisely in the groove.
A man and two people stand with their backs to the camera, arms around each other, looking out at a calm lake surrounded by lush green trees.