“What I do every day is almost performance,” bookstore owner Matt Tannenbaum told me when I asked how it felt to be the subject of A.B. Zax’s new documentary Hello, Bookstore. I was reminded of a moment in the film when he points to his cluttered desk and tells a customer, “this is my little play area right here, and these are my props.” Tannenbaum, it seems, is a showman more than he is a businessman, and that’s exactly what makes him a worthy subject for a full length feature film. It was this “magnetism” that initially attracted Zax to him and his store a decade ago; it was, in his words, “love at first sight”.

Zax had begun frequenting The Bookstore in Lenox, Massachusetts, and had read Tannenbaum’s book My Years at The Gotham Book Mart, when he asked him in the summer of 2019 if he would help him turn his stories into something for the big screen. Tannenbaum called it “an invitation he couldn’t resist”, and the close personal relationship between the two certainly shines through in the film, a love letter to a man whose life is itself a love letter to literature.

“a love letter to a man whose life is itself a love letter to literature”

Yet, crucially, the film does not hinge on interview-style formatting or any narrative that Zax is trying to push. Instead, the experience of watching it is not unlike the experience of sitting in one of the bookstore’s much-loved pink armchairs and watching the world go by; most of the runtime consists of shots of Matt at work, talking to customers from all different walks of life and learning as much about them as they do about him. It’s less fly on the wall and more fly buzzing around a bookstore, but it works. When I asked him about the intention behind this filmmaking style, Zax quoted the Hollywood Golden Age filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch - “The job of the director is to suggest two plus two. Let the viewer say four.” - and added that audiences are “hungry to think” in an age of Netflix documentaries which rely so heavily on cinematic spoon feeding.

There is, however, a political undertone to the documentary, which, rather than taking away from the main focus of the film, contextualises and enhances it. At one point, Tannenbaum jokes with a customer that he has always “tried not to make any money”, and there are several shots which show posters from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign decorating the walls of the store. When we talked politics, Tannenbaum described a personal ethos which places love at its centre, and sees money not as a motivator but a “tool” with which to provide for his community and support his growing family. It is this selfless dedication to and heartfelt love for what he does that makes Tannenbaum such a charismatic central figure, underpinning the appeal of the film.

“It is this selfless dedication to and heartfelt love for what he does that makes Tannenbaum such a charismatic central figure”

Part of Hello, Bookstore’s runtime is dedicated to telling the story of the establishment’s tumultuous journey through the coronavirus pandemic, during which Tannenbaum’s dedication to the local community was repaid to him in the overwhelming generosity he received from customers and supporters in Lenox and beyond. The money he normally made in a single day started to become the total figure for the week, and Tannenbaum slipped into debt. A GoFundMe was set up, and, not only did it meet its goal in just twenty-three hours, but it doubled it after just forty-eight . “They get to be a part of saving what they love”, Tannenbaum muses, “how often do you get the chance to do that?”

Above all else, what makes this documentary so special is that it manages to distil several broad themes - creative passion, dedication to one’s livelihood, the power of community - into one highly specific, localised story. The Bookstore in Lenox is unlike any other bookstore in the world, because it’s the only one that has Matt Tannenbaum as its beating heart, but it tells a universal story. The film doesn’t force itself on its viewers, or feel cloying and saccharine, but instead feels like a long and much-needed chat with an old relative, who has as many life lessons to share as they do book recommendations.

When I asked him what his main aims were in making the film, Zax said his wish was that it would encourage people “to not let Amazon and the algorithms take over our society and our communities.” Let us hope, then, that this documentary will succeed in drawing the attention that it deserves, and alert people to the importance of investing in physical, printed media and supporting local independent businesses, in a time where both of those things are at great risk. After all, according to Zax, this film is, more than anything else, a story about “what we as humans can do for each other.”

Hello, Bookstore is in cinemas and on demand on 30th June, with a preview screening and Q&A with Matt Tannenbaum and A.B. Zax at Cambridge Picturehouse on Monday 26th June.