SCREEN TIME
BOOK TOME IMMEMORIAL and Learn Miriam Balanescu meets filmmaker AB Zax and his first filmic subject, Matt Tannenbaum, a bookseller from Massachusetts W hen I walked in this bookstore, it felt unlike any other bookstore I’ve ever
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“I didn’t even see him sometimes!” interjects Matt. “For me, it was having a witness. Because as you can tell, I enjoy doing what I do. And to have a witness observe and corroborate that was just a little bonus for me.” As the pandemic sets in, the whimsical story begins to pick up a note of urgency. With profits plummeting, Matt is forced to launch a campaign to rescue The Bookstore. Fortunately, the community rallies together and raises the funds in a matter of hours. “This was not an in-your- face ‘Listen, you’ve got to do this. This is going to save the world,’” insists Matt. “But it’s an invitation to come in and realise that you can save the world by doing what we do here… It’s passive-aggressive activism!” “My highest hope is that this film could encourage our communities to sort of re-centre,” adds AB. “I think a lot of the fractured nature of our culture, at least in the US, is the aftermath of the digital revolution. I just think we’ve lost touch with our communities and with each other. With this: people come into the bookstore and it’s an exchange of stories, an exchange of ideas and viewpoints, and you connect to your neighbour.” One of their audience’s favourite moments in the film is an unexpected dream sequence – Matt goes to take a nap downstairs, and suddenly we see him waltzing around the store. “I’m an older fellow and I need to take a nap every once in a while,” jokes Matt. “I don’t remember that we set it up. I think I was just down there and he followed me.” “The sort of magical realist aspects of it are all honestly the feeling I get from being here,” says AB. “It’s true to life in the sense that you drift here and then these magical things happen. So, I wanted to figure out a way to do that in the film.”
been in. And I think a lot of that has to do with Matt and his curation,” says AB Zax of his debut feature documentary, which takes its title and subject from The Bookstore in Lenox, Massachusetts. The pair are now touring the UK with Hello, Bookstore – a documentary capturing the daily goings-on at Matt Tannenbaum’s shop – and they have a stop-off planned in Cambridge. “We have a full itinerary of bookshops,” says AB. “That’s our main focus.” As its audiences will discover, The Bookstore is no ordinary place, with the film capturing a dreamlike quality to its everyday proceedings. “I just fell in love with the store instantly,” enthuses AB. “And over time, I fell in love with Matt, and just would sit and watch him. The way he conducts business is a beautiful art form. It’s like theatre, and selling a book is storytelling.” AB started filming in 2019, unaware of the coming pandemic – so before and after footage is spliced together. “I would just find angles, follow the flow of what was happening and just be nimble enough to respond to a moment,” he recalls.
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On 26 June, a preview screening and Q&A for Hello, Bookstore will take place at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse. The film is in cinemas and on demand 30 June
INSPIRATION Matt Tannenbaum is a bookseller in Lenox, Massachusetts – and at the centre of AB Zax’s first feature-length film
22 JULY 2023 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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