DOCUMENTARY DAYS -
BOOKWARS
Five years in the making, Jason Rosette's documentary on
street booksellers in Manhattan is as much a record of the
DIY marketplace's ups and downs as it is a keen character
study. Having been a bookseller himself for some time after
graduating from NYU with an empty wallet, Rosette is
allowed firsthand access into a realm where someone with a
camera might otherwise be treated with hostile suspicion.
He captures plenty, and the film is at its best when it
illustrates the various personalities and backgrounds of
the sellers.
A good deal of them are vastly passionate and knowledgeable
about literature; they have their individual methods of
business, their little idiosyncrasies that make it seem
more like a "real" job (several guys, for instance, pack
their books only in cardboard banana boxes ˆë "It's a
tradition"). Rosette even follows them off the sidewalk
when, for various reasons (winter cold, the fuzz,
Giuliani's crusade), they canˆït open shop; one, a
charismatic and resourceful fellow named Peter, even
resorts to washing and grooming people's cats in his
off-street period. The personable sequences, combined with
the tensions of various clashes with the NYPD, make for
absorbing, fascinating filmmaking. (Sunset 5; Sat.-Sun.,
Nov. 11-12, 10 a.m. Monica 4-Plex; Sat.-Sun., Nov. 18-19,
11 a.m.)
Nicole Campos