It was written, directed, shot, co-edited and co-produced by filmmaker A.B. “Adam” Zax of West Stockbridge.
The feature’s title, “Hello, Bookstore,” is Tannenbaum’s standard phone greeting.
The docu traces the daily existence of its missionary owner-curator, Matthew Tannenbaum, a jaunty boomer who runs the place as if it were more than a library–a communal fun party.
Some residents call Matthew “The Living Legend of Lenox” and you can see why: He has owned The Bookstore in Lenox since 1976.
For Matthew that’s not idle flattery. It reflects the independent bookshop’s role as a literary salon, a center of community conversation for multi-generational locals and visitors who have flocked to the Housatonic Street storefront for books, readings, good company, a beverage at the Get Lit wine bar. That is, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Heavily in debt, Tannenbaum, 76, launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $120,000 in August 2020, which saved the store. With no plans to retire, he intends to keep it in the family as one of his two daughters, Shawnee, 35, is in training as a manager.
“There’s such an emotional connection to independent bookstores,” Zax noted. For his part, Tannenbaum said: “I’m just that guy who likes to do what I do, to sit upfront, do the work, and handle books. The film captures me doing that.”
The docu is distributed by Greenwich Entertainment, eight months after its world premiere at the Berkshire Film Fest in Great Barrington.
After its theatrical premiere at the independent nonprofit Film Forum cinema in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, Hello, Bookstore will be screened at theaters in L.A., Boston and nationwide.
As expected, Hello, Bookstore highlights the precarious state of independent bookstores, few of which are left in the big cities, in the digital-corporate age.