Anna Mendelssohn

From political conferences to the George Formby Society's annual bash, and Pleasure Beach to the weather, an Arena documentary on the seaside town of Blackpool and its history.

B for BARTLEBY is a documentary film essay about a very personal confrontation with this narrative: It becomes a re-encounter with a deceased companion, who wanted to film Bartleby all his life. Then a journey to the USA, to the farmhouse of Herman Melville. Here today's "classic" of American literature, conscripted the women of his family to "write off". We see performative experiments with women "learning" Bartleby and men practicing writing; we see everyday encounters with Bartleby in a cafeteria, a youth club, a center for the stranded. and a legendary offstage theater in New York. Goose quills scurry across blank pages, actresses memorize text that might be their own, costumed museum employees lead tours of "original showplaces," animals (beloved by Herman Melville above all else) glare at us. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" It's about the desire and curiosity to find out how to peacefully cope with a personal visitation.

"Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel", Martha and Alex should have taken Jim Morrison's advice to heart, but on their car ride through an idyllic landscape they are primarily occupied with themselves. Only when real life comes crashing into their small self-involved world in the shape of a little dog and its grim owner, do things get set in motion - more than they could have asked for. A devious road movie full of hefty surprises.