Salesman

Salesman is a 1969 documentary film created by Albert and David Maysles. This documentary was a part of the Direct Cinema Movement because it utilizes cinema verite type flimmaking. Cinema verite flimmaking involves using unobtrusive techniques to record scenes under the most natural conditions. In the documentary, four Bible salesmen are filmed for a period of six weeks. As the audience, we get to see how these salesmen live their lives. They are friends in that they spend most of their time together, share a temporary living space, and discuss the success and struggles of their job. However, they are sort of competing against each other. This is a declining profession, and if they do not excel, they could lose their job.

Although Salesman is classified as a documentary, there is a lot of drama involved. This is suppose to be an observational documentary in which we simply observe the subjects going about their everyday lives. However, Salesman has be carefully edited to tell a story and make it more interesting for the viewers. At the beginning of the film, the manager of the Mid-American Bible Company explains to the workers how they had to let some people go because their performance was not high enough. The filmmakers tend to focus on Paul Brennan as the main character since it is obvious that he is struggling to make sales. By doing this, the Maysles brothers create sort of a melancholia. Viewers feel bad that this salesman is having such a hard time and could lose his job. At the same time though, the audience does not like what the salesmen are doing. These men are lying to customers in an attempt to get them to purchase this expensive Bible. Most of the people they are trying to sell to are not really in the best financial situations and are having trouble just trying to make ends meet. This is where the drama occurs. We feel bad for the salesmen, specifically Paul, but we are also disappointed in what the salesmen are doing.

The many new technological innovations made direct cinema films like this possible. The filmmaker used 16mm film stock, portable wireless cameras. These cameras were lighter, faster, and more mobile. The cameras allowed the filmmaker to follow its subjects without having to lug around a ton of equipment or having to take time and set the camera up. They could follow the salesmen around and go into the multiple homes to capture events exactly as they occurred. Despite the fact that these cameras were suppose to catch life and events directly, it is not completely accurate because the filmmaker chooses what he shoots, people do not act completely like themselves when they are in front of a camera, and the film can be edited to make people feel and think a certain way.