BOOKWARS
Unemployed in New York City after his late 1980s college
graduation, Jason Rosette started selling books on the
street. He soon became a full-time street bookseller,
collecting from rummage sales, library clearances, and even
dumpsters. His career brought him into contact with other
remarkable characters who sold books on the street: Marvin,
a self-styled man of God with a jaunty black hat and
fondness for betting on horses; Polish Joe, a tobacco
enthusiast with a five-pack-a-day habit and a sixth sense
for knowing when bad weather will thin out his competition;
Slick Rick Sherman, who does magic tricks to pass the time
and has mastered the art of book-selling psychology; and
Peter Whitney, who creates sculptures and collages that
document his fascination with toads. Rosette began
documenting the culture of street booksellers on videotape
and Super-8 film in 1995, just as New York City mayor
Rudolph Giuliani began to crack down on street vendors and
New York University began to lose patience with the book
dealers operating near their campus.
BookWars, Rosette's first film, was named Best Documentary
at the 2000 New York Underground Film Festival.
-- Mark Deming All Movie Guide