BookWars

Bookwars Directed by Jason Rosette

by Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Film Critics Circle

(originally appearing in the NY Press)

In BookWars, a superb nonfiction film by first-time feature director Jason Rosette, books are more than sources of knowledge. They are merchandise that’s appraised, bought and sold. They’re also artifacts, sometimes clean and intact but more often damaged, whose condition at the point of sale says plenty about the conscientiousness of the seller. Most of all, they’re an addictive substance.

Rosette, a former street bookseller, makes the point that while his brethren tend to be more educated than the average Joe, and much more aggressive in extolling the virtues of reading, when you get down to it, they’re basically junkies chasing a rush. The specific type of rush varies from bookseller to bookseller: some of Rosette’s subjects get off on the idea of spreading self-empowering knowledge, or belief systems that terrify the establishment; others seem to get a charge out of interacting with customers, whose eccentric ranks include a surprisingly high number of repeat clients; still others sell books because they’ve been doing it for years and can’t imagine any other life. They’re dealers who are hooked on their own merchandise. "When (people) get hold of a good book, they get intoxicated, they get high," one bookseller tells Rosette.

BookWars has its world premiere March 11, 7:30, at the New York Underground Film Festival, which runs March 8-14 at Anthology Film Archives. It occurs to me that when you check out this festival, the experience is not unlike perusing a street bookseller’s wares. In both cases you get a mix of old and new themes, titles and styles, and the quality of presentation varies wildly from work to work. On the street, some books are shrink-wrapped and new, freshly purchased at some used bookstore or plucked from a remainder bin or a warehouse garbage pile, while other...