Telemarketers don’t like bad telemarketing calls, either.
In the HBO documentary, “Telemarketers,” directors Sam Lipman-Stern and Adam Bhala Lough hear as much when they go into a telemarketing center. They also show how much of the bogus work is designed to bring big bucks for those running the call centers, not the charities.
Patrick Pespas, left, and Sam Lipman-Stern wanted to take a Michael Moore approach to filming a documentary about the telemarketing industry. Pespas frequently approached subjects for gonzo interviews. Their work is seen in “Telemarketers.”
When the hired callers – who often can’t get work in other places – hear about disreputable centers being shut down, they’re thrilled.
“So many people were screwed over in this scam – from cancer victims and veterans to police organizations,” Lipman-Stern says of the case featured in the documentary. “There are so many victims, I feel like this story wanted to be told.”
A long gestation
Director Adam Bhala Lough
Oddly enough, the seed for “Telemarketers” began more than 20 years ago when Lipman-Stern and Patrick Pespas were working at Civic Development Group. They shot footage of the format they and others used, determined to follow in Michael Moore’s footsteps and expose the scam. When CDG was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission, the telemarketing business didn’t end – it only got stronger.
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That fueled their fire and sent the two on the hunt for someone who could help. Enter: Bhala Lough, a cousin who works in the film industry.
When he saw the footage, “it was an unruly mess but there was some real gold within it,” Bhala Lough says. “It just needed someone to go through it and craft a narrative out of all the madness.”
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