The homemade music videos and parodies flourishing on the Web seem a possible inspiration for the guerrilla remakes featured in “Be Kind Rewind,” but don’t breathe the Y-word to director Michel Gondry. Though video store clerk Mike (Mos Def) and his pal Jerry (Jack Black) spend much of the film replacing damaged tapes by remaking the movies themselves, Mr. Gondry is adamant that Webcam auteurs were not his inspiration.

“My film is not about YouTube,” the 44-year-old French filmmaker said of his new comedy, which opens next Friday and also stars Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. “I’ve done that type of shooting since I was a kid, and my son was doing it 10 years ago. I know a lot of kids who are working like that, and they don’t need YouTube.”

The film’s gimcrack takes on studio fare such as “Ghostbusters” and “Driving Miss Daisy” afford Mr. Gondry plenty of opportunities to indulge his signature crafts-class whimsy, but ironic re-appropriations of the classics hold only secondary appeal. Extolling homespun entertainment in general, he sounded instead like a page torn from the manifesto of an independent film collective.

“The only way to get free of corporate control is to make entertainment among yourselves and control the whole process from shooting to distribution,” he said. “You could shoot your own movie with friends and neighbors, watch it together, charge $10 each, collect the money, and use it to shoot the next one.”

What keeps Mr. Gondry’s zeal from the clichés of empowerment is his movie’s kinship and continuity with his last effort, “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party,” an all-star concert documentary set in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The director was inspired by the community experience and by Mr. Chappelle, his emcee and gadfly-about-thehood. The two were initially set to collaborate again on “Be Kind,” and some of the titles that are “sweded” (the film’s neologism for remakes) were Mr. Chappelle’s idea, including “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Boyz ‘N the Hood,” and “Rush Hour.”

Seeking a hometown vibe, Mr. Gondry set “Be Kind Rewind” in Passaic, N.J. The plot, which sees the “sweded” movies catch on like wildfire, hinges on the threat of the redevelopment of the video store where Mike works. In reality, the building used to depict the video store made for its own intriguing turnover of tenants: “It was an extreme right-wing church,” Mr. Gondry said. “But we rented and redecorated.”

But why Passaic? “The mechanic I used to work with since ‘Eternal Sunshine’ worked in the junkyard and body shop that we used for Jerry’s place,” the director, who lives in Manhattan, said. “It was all something that already existed, and I just rearranged it slightly. That was important to me because the premise is a little unbelievable, and I wanted the ground to feel solid.”

Mr. Gondry, who cast the mechanic and other locals in minor roles, seems to have enjoyed the small scale of the neighborhood shoot. In fact, the concept for “Be Kind Rewind” originally arose from the director’s observation that in the past, studio sequels were steps down in size and ambition from their originals. Mr. Gondry, the innovator of music videos for Björk and the White Stripes, expressed distinct frustration over the bloat and noise of pop culture today, and said he sees disagreeable patterns in bigger-is-better attitudes.

“I unplugged my TV definitively 10 years ago and just rent DVDs,” he said. “It’s very cynical what’s happening in popular culture, the disdain for people who don’t have money. When I moved to America, it seemed to me that a guy like Donald Trump was a bad guy. But now he’s a popular icon.”

At the same time, he recognizes the reach and appeal of popular music. After all, it’s how Ms. Farrow was enlisted to play an unhappy customer who unwittingly catalyzes the “swede” revolution. “It turned out her son is a big fan of my videos and films,” the director said. “I can go through a lot of different generations because of the music videos.”

Mr. Gondry’s own son, Paul, makes a creative contribution to “Be Kind Rewind.” The 16-year-old comic book artist painted a wall mural of Fats Waller, whom Mr. Glover’s character touts as a hometown hero. Father and son will work together even more extensively for an upcoming animated feature scripted by Dan Clowes (“Ghost World”).

But you don’t have to be a member of the Gondry clan (brother Olivier also directs videos) to break into sweding. An interactive exhibition at the Deitch Projects on Wooster Street, timed to the film’s release and running through March 22 features a re-creation of the video store and a do-it-yourself mini-digital video station, complete with sets (living room, restaurant). This added amateur-friendly flourish from Mr. Gondry, who also designed an exhibit at Deitch for his 2006 film “Science of Sleep,” is as charming as ever — as is his boyish ambition. “You can work in the exhibition to write, create, shoot, and watch a film,” he said. “All within two hours.”