Barberland

Plot

Barberland is a portrayal of barbers and their shops which have been quickly fading into vanishing Americana. Through quirky tales told by the barbers who were there, the film is a document to a time when a good shave and haircut made all the difference in your day, and people meant more than money.

Production

The making of Barberland was a journey into a bulwark of vanishing Americana. Barbers and their shops were originally going to be one segment of a larger documentary project which was to also include pool halls, coffee shops and diners but this was immediately abandoned after the production team completed a few weeks of shooting barbers and decided barbershops would be a sufficient subject for a feature-length documentary.

Unlike most documentary films which contain ample cutaways to b-roll and archive footage, Barberland contains only interviews with barbers in their shops; sitting in their chairs and/or cutting their customer's hair. While an assemblage of talking heads would be considered a cardinal sin for most documentary filmmakers, this technique creates a simulation of the trip through a "land of barbers", thus delivering on the film's title. The film also contains no voice-over as it common in most documentary films. Instead, the barbers tell their own story in their own words. The production of Barberland serves to create a unique sensibility that lives somewhere between Ken Burns and Michael Moore films.