Buffalo Film: Video comedy also asks cosmic question: ‘have bookstore workers actually read their own staff picks?’

By Elmer Ploetz

“Broadway Books” is a pilot episode for a comedy series based around an independent bookstore in Manhattan, but it has its own scrappy independent spirit that connects it to its potential audience.

That’s one of the reasons it is screening at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center on Wednesday night, a collaboration between Hallwalls and Talking Leaves books.

In a recent interview, director and writer Carianne King said that while the 25-minute episode made its film festival debut over the summer, that connection with independent bookstores everywhere made it logical to take it on the road to those kinds of venues.

The Hallwalls screening is the first of an East Coast tour focusing on bookstores and libraries.

“This year has been all about getting traction around the show and finding a community,” she said. “One traditional route by trying to get into film festivals, and we’ve we had our premiere in Los Angeles over the summer, and we appeared at another film festival in New York City last month.

“But at the same time, I felt like this is a show that celebrates independent booksellers, so I had a fun idea to do a bookstores and libraries tour, and that way the show could really connect with the people who might just like a show like this and also be one to one with its mission to celebrate independent booksellers … I think there’s a natural community for it, and that’s what I’m trying to build.”

King’s hope is that once the tour is finished she’ll be able to take it to a production company to make more episodes. The dream would be to build something like a “Seinfeld.”

She said she always envisioned “Broadway Books” as a sitcom, not as a short film.

“When I created this project, I was thinking about that format in particular,” she said. “I think that format today is considered maybe, like uncool, you know, like a relic from the past. But I was thinking about comedy that makes you feel good, and it’s cozy and comforting. I was wondering, ‘Why are there no shows in the old spirit of “Seinfeld” or “30 Rock”?’ Not as many as those types of things getting made.”

King grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Washington and now lives in the Hudson Valley, but her Talking Leaves connection came through Robert Creeley’s family. The late noted poet and longtime University at Buffalo professor’s daughter, Hannah, is King’s sister-in-law. Creeley’s son, Will, worked at Talking Books in his younger days and suggested that King contact the store for her tour.

The comedy is set in “Broadway Books,” an independent bookstore based on Book Culture, a store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It attempts to capture the struggles and some of the lunacy of indie stores in an Amazon-dominated era, a challenge faced by every independent store across America.

The pilot was shot over four nights in Book Culture, where King worked briefly when she first moved to New York in 2012. The idea for story had started then, although she didn’t envision it as a sitcom until later. She wrote the script in 2022 and the show was shot in 2023.

King has worked in the fashion industry as a creative director and writer, but has had a second life as writer and director, directing comedy shorts. This is her first longer piece done with an ensemble cast.

Her cast is filled with comedians from New York’s “alternative comedy” scene, including Ruby McCollister, Nick Naney, Lauren Servideo, Eric Yates, Rew Starr and Joe Apollonio. Carlos Dengler, who plays the store owner, has a more traditional theater background, as well as being one of the founders and the original bass player in the indie band Interpol.

RELATED MEDIA: “Broadway Books” still photos

The crew shot all night in the store, then went outside when it got light around 5 p.m. to shoot the external shots. New York City’s sense of place is a big factor in the show.

“Something I’ve thought a lot about is there’s something people relate to, New York City as a character and an idea, like a romantic idea,” King said. “I think it’s like a symbol or something to people who don’t live there. (For) a show like ‘Seinfeld’ or ’30 Rock’, set in New York, the city is a character that people are just always interested in. In my show, I wanted New York City to feel like nostalgic and romantic and warm. I didn’t want to play up the grittier aspects of the city.”

The Buffalo screening on Wednesday will be followed by a Q-and-A with King. Admission is free.

Elmer Ploetz is editor-in-chief of The Buffalo Hive.