There is a lot of tweed, a few pocket squares and an old-fashioned waxed mustache in “The Booksellers”, DW Young’s charming documentary about the book world – or more precisely the book world as an object, with booksellers antique dealers trying to reinvent themselves and reinvent their industry in the digital age.
Anyone curious about the inner workings of giants without charm like Amazon or Barnes & Noble in difficulty will have to look elsewhere. Young made the aesthetically sound choice to focus mainly on suppliers specializing in rare books or niche subjects. Some are themselves inveterate collectors. A bookseller goes around his warehouse in New Jersey, where 300,000 volumes share the space with taxidermied gulls and a Masonic throne.
Two emotional currents run through the documentary. The darkest concerns older booksellers who have seen their business transformed, particularly with the advent of the Internet and, over the past 10 years, the proliferation of smartphones.
But the young people in this film are not only hopeful, but enthusiastic. (There’s a frustrating lack of on-screen caption identification – a confusing stylistic choice also ironic, given all the anxiety over the printed word.) This new generation is proof of the long-awaited diversification finally begins to take place. Women are increasingly recognized in the industry, as are people of color. An archivist of hip-hop memories collects copies of magazines like The Source and XXL.
And even some of the troubled booksellers are still delighted with what they are doing. One of them, standing in the middle of a welcoming space, opens a volume to reveal a luxuriant and life-size illustration of a fish. “Playboy,” he said, “eat your heart.”
The booksellers
Unclassified. Duration: 1 hour 39 minutes.