Director: A.B. Zax
Delving deep into a good book offers respite from our daily lives, inviting us to enter new and different worlds in which we can freely immerse ourselves. Never has there been such a yearning or need for distraction than during the Covid pandemic – which did indeed enforce us all into a new and different world of bewilderment and fear. It was during this turbulent time, of course, that bookstores among most other businesses were forced to close their doors, depriving us of the things we often take for granted.
“I don’t want people in here. It’s curb side if you know what you’re looking for but we’re not letting anybody in.” The we in question being the proprietor of a smalltown America bookstore simply called Bookstore, Matthew Tannenbaum. He, alongside documentary director A.B. Zax, does invite us in for a close look at life in his oft-bustling book shop, which ended up taking per week what it would usually in a day during the height of Covid. Capturing the caution and the frustration of small business owners and their customers as they warily endeavoured to navigate this untrodden path, Hello, Bookstore is an endearing and enlightening window into an everyday yet enchanting world. Whether a booklover or not, there is a great deal of relatable material to extract from this small film, which is as much about humanity as it is about hardcovers.
While the pandemic bookends the film, this is not simply an exploration of its impact but, rather like browsing the shelves, a leisurely look around at a quirky offbeat shop and its inhabitants. A sense of community permeates throughout and comes to the forefront when it’s revealed that a Go-Fund Me page set up to save the store vastly surpassed its target. The money afforded Tannenbaum the opportunity to not only salvage the much-loved local institution but steer it forwards just as people are finally venturing out into the world once again.
Tannenbaum is an extension of the books he sells. He regales us and his loyal customers with yarns of his time in New York. He shares various engaging anecdotes about how he came to open his own store – which he freely admits to running by the seat of his pants ever since. He also offers a personal but never overly sentimental account of raising his two children after the untimely passing of his wife. All of this of course ingratiates us to him – so much so that by the closing credits we truly feel we have been in the company of a well-known acquaintance. Setting the world to rights at Bookstore’s very own Get Lit Wine Bar with him is soon an appealing prospect.
Whether he is reading sections of books to patrons, even reciting some by heart, or sharing his extensive, encyclopaedic knowledge of a vast array of texts, it’s clear how much the man loves literature. With the ever-increasing rise in internet shopping – compounded further by the pandemic – we have lost that personable and pleasurable exchange between customer and service provider that was once commonplace. The fact that establishments such as Bookstore are still in existence and that so many donated money to help ensure its survival is comforting and provides a sense of hope for the future.
There is no real narrative structure here and at times when the pace lulls one might prefer the idea of reaching for a book rather watching a documentary about them. Persevere, however, and you will be rewarded with a refreshingly authentic and in many ways quite like-affirming film. There are no gimmicks– just a snapshot of life in all its predictability and spontaneity, its ups and its downs, its happy times and its sad. While it might not exactly be the film equivalent of a page-turner – more like a soothing Sunday afternoon read – this is a delightful dose of quiet and nurturing escapism.
Bulldog Film Distribution presents Hello, Bookstore in Cinemas and on demand 30 June.
