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The Callers

The Callers sifts through the world of local public auctions with a group of Pennsylvania auctioneers moving mounds of merchandise, transitioning people into the next stage of life, and revealing our complex relationship with stuff, with consuming, with collecting, sometimes even hoarding. Auctioneering is about the art of the sale, mortality, recycling, and our changing cultural landscape. Agriculture to which auctions have long been tied continues to shrink. Family ties, community ties continue to break down. Myriad media outlets clamor for our shrinking attention spans. Hectic modern lifestyles don’t allow the time to devote to spending all day at an auction. Auctioneering is arguably an antiquated profession. And, it is arguably a timely one. People across America sold a bill of goods by bankers and brokers can go to the local auction house and themselves set the value of something by deciding what they are willing to pay for it on any given day. The auction method is a fair method, arguably the fairest method. And when you are elbow to elbow with a crowd of bidders, adrenaline coursing through your veins, your heart pounding as you flick your card, wiggle your nose, scratch your ear in time to the auctioneer’s call, it is undeniably a most entertaining one.

Watch The Callers Trailer:

“The buyers are for the most part hooked like any gambler, and it brings some excitement to the film, ‘Will they get it? Will they win?’” Elsie Thompson, The Los Angeles Beat