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The Booksellers

Play trailer 1:59 Poster for The Booksellers Released Mar 6, 2020 1h 39m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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90% Tomatometer 62 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A behind-the-scenes look at the New York rare book world and the fascinating people who inhabit it.
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The Booksellers

The Booksellers

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Critics Consensus

Inviting viewers into a fascinating world of bibliophiles, The Booksellers is a documentary that's easy to curl up and get lost in.

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Critics Reviews

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Danny Leigh Financial Times Affable eccentricity is everywhere. Rated: 4/5 Jul 3, 2020 Full Review Jake Wilson The Age (Australia) In style it's conventional, but it bounces along, with the brisk editing and David Ullmann's jazzy score setting a fusty yet lively tone not far removed from the films of Woody Allen. Rated: 3/5 Jul 1, 2020 Full Review Pamela Hutchinson Empire Magazine Unputdownable documentary that evokes the thrill of reading preloved pages and reveals that a passion for collecting is not just a hoarding instinct, but a way to preserve and share culture. Rated: 4/5 Jun 30, 2020 Full Review Jason Adams The Film Experience Captivating new nerd-out of a documentary Jul 2, 2021 Full Review Javier Cortijo Cinemanía (Spain) A joyous, instructive and hopeful experience. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 3.5/5 Feb 24, 2021 Full Review Richard Crouse Richard Crouse A Valentine to books and the people who understand that the printed word is just the beginning of our relationship to a book. Rated: 4/5 Jan 30, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Linda Very interesting take on book stores and sellers Am a reader and am guilty of going digital but do buy books every now and then But the rare books and collections is not something I had any idea that was very interesting Fascinating people great interviews and amazing women in the buisness Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/10/20 Full Review JOAN M L Book lovers will find this doc informative and very interesting but it's too long. Cutting 1/2 hour out would help it becoming less repetitive. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/09/20 Full Review Jarrett Thoroughly interesting and inspiring. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/22/20 Full Review tom w I love books & I read a lot, so I found this documentary fascinating. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I found some of the characters featured to be fascinating and I also found that the movie had some great nuggets about why books are so important. However, I also thought the movie jumped around a lot and tried to contain too many people and too many small vignettes from all the people they talked too. It was like the people making the film did not want to play favorites or hurt anyone's feelings. Because of this, I felt like the movie never got as deep or made a strong as an impression as it could have. I think it might have been smarter to focus on four or five of the booksellers and follow their stories more closely. How they started, what they actually do in the course of the day, how it impacts their life and then the future of their craft. They touched on at the end how some of the booksellers did not see a future in their profession beyond themselves. There was a younger woman on the end who worked in the field and said she had many ideas and was very optimistic. I wanted to hear her thoughts but then it just jumped to the next person. The movie gave extra time to selling a famous book of Leonardo Da Vinci's notes to Bill Gates at an auction to a man showing a bunch of drawings of fish in a book. All in all, I still enjoyed the documentary but it left me feeling like there was more of a story still left about people who find and sell rare and old books. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member What a fascinating documentary about book sellers. It's very interesting how book sellers and expensive book buyers are. I highly recommend this for your average collector of anything. Every collector has the same mindset and it shows in this movie. Yes it only talks about book collectors but we collectors are all the same. Great documentary. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Booksellers

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Movie Info

Synopsis A behind-the-scenes look at the New York rare book world and the fascinating people who inhabit it.
Director
D.W. Young
Producer
Dan Wechsler, Judith Mizrachy, D.W. Young
Distributor
Greenwich Entertainment
Production Co
Blackletter Films
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 6, 2020, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 5, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA)
$25.2K
Runtime
1h 39m
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