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The Booksellers
Directed by D.W. Young
Streaming ENDS August 31
“It feels really good to be roaming those aisles of bookshelves again, even if it’s just through at screen.” —Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times
Antiquarian booksellers are part scholar, part detective and part businessperson. Their personalities and knowledge are as broad as the material they handle. They also play an underappreciated, yet essential, role in preserving history. The Booksellers takes viewers inside their intimate fascinating world, populated by an assortment of obsessive characters, intellects, eccentrics and dreamers.
This documentary takes us into the inner world of book dealing from the Park Avenue Armory’s annual Antiquarian Book Fair, where original editions can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars; to the Strand and Argosy bookstores—still standing against all odds—to the beautifully crammed apartments of collectors and buyers. The film, executive produced by Parker Posey, features a range of commentators, including Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Gay Talese, and a community of dedicated book dealers and collectors who strongly believe in the wonder of the object and what it holds within. A selection of the New York Film Festival. 2019, U.S., 99 minutes. Recommended for 16+.