Reviewers Zanna Gillespie and Greg Bruce watch Telemarketers.
SHE SAW
The HBO three-part documentary Telemarketers is like a patchwork quilt made from dirty old rags, some that were probably used as makeshift tourniquets by heroin addicts, woven together into an unexpectedly lovely quilt. The first two episodes of the series, which attempts to expose corruption within the fundraising telemarketing game, are made up almost entirely of shoddy camcorder footage by aspiring film-maker, 9th grade dropout and probable drug addict, Sam Lipman-Stern. Throughout those first two episodes, my assumption was that a big-name producer or genius editor had got their hands on the footage and crafted it into a compelling story because the erratic and unreliable subjects of this film certainly couldn’t have done it. But the truth is something much more inspiring.
In 2001, Sam started working as a telemarketer for an organisation called Civic Development Group (CDG) after dropping out of high school at 14. His employer didn’t care that he was a dropout. They’d hire anyone as long as they had some version of the gift of the gab and a glitching moral compass. The call centre was full of convicts and drug abusers, many - including the series’ other protagonist Patrick Pespas - who were taking class A drugs while on the job, some literally passing out in their cubicles. CDG raised money on behalf of charities, primarily police organisations, but were in fact pocketing upwards of 90 per cent of the funds raised.
So Pat and Sam set out to make a documentary investigating their now former employer and the telemarketing business in general. Pat is an incredible talent. He’s missing teeth, often high and is in and out of the methadone programme, but when he gets on the phone and slickly and confidently asks people, “Can the Fraternal Order of Police count on you for support today?” you get a glimpse of everything this man could’ve been and achieved had his life taken a different path.