The title refers to the famous protagonist of Herman Melville's novella—Bartleby, who chooses to "prefer not to." Director Angela Summereder decides to take up a project her partner Benedikt Zulauf had hoped to finish before his death. Zulauf was known for his collaboration on History Lessons (1972) by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. The result is an essay film in which the director's personal history intersects with the singular figure of Bartleby and his particular attitude toward life. Well over a century after the novella's publication in 1853, Bartleby's famous refusal has evolved into something like a form of passive resistance—a way of pushing back against an overproductive world. "Preferring not to" is also, in a sense, the approach the director brought to this film—drawing on multiple voices and formal resources to translate a literary work into images, she avoids the clichés of adaptation altogether. Bartleby would surely be proud. (Sung MOON)