The Librarians
2025 • 1h 32m • Documentary
This film is no longer available.
About the film
The Librarians with Joyce Vance
How Censorship is Threatening Our Constitutional Rights at the Local Level
Exclusive access to a special screening and conversation hosted by Joyce Vance, former United States Attorney, professor of the practice of law at the University of Alabama school of law, and author of the "Civil Discourse" newsletter on Substack. Featuring Oscar-nominated Director/Producer Kim A Snyder alongside our courageous librarian/film participants Amanda Jones (LA) and Suzette Baker (TX), representing school and public libraries affected by the recent Fifth Circuit ruling which opened the door to a new era of book bans.
Read their TIME Op-Ed here and hear from them about:
How the "government speech doctrine" is being wielded in the Fifth Circuit and Florida
How state penal law is circumventing our First and Fourteenth amendment rights
How local coalitions are fighting back
How you can get involved in defending your local libraries
Stay Engaged
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
From Academy Award nominated and Peabody Award winning Director Kim A Snyder -- librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.
In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of a large-scale coordinated extremist movement fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
Director
Kim A Snyder
Producer
Janique L Robillard, Jana Edelbaum, Maria Cuomo Cole, +1 more
Awards & recognition
Dallas International Film Festival
2025 Best Documentary Feature
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Audience Award
Houston Film Critic's Society
Texas Independent Film Award
Seattle International Film Festival
Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision
What people are saying
‘The New York Times Critic's Pick ‘The Librarians’ Review: What Should Children Read? Nine librarians are profiled in Kim A. Snyder’s gripping documentary about censorship in public schools. “The Librarians” is as well-crafted as it is profoundly alarming.‘
Sheri Linden
‘The Librarians review – the heroic women battling against book bans and censorship **** Kim A Snyder’s documentary highlights the defenders of young readers’ rights to see their lives in print facing rightwing attacks‘
Cath Clarke
‘‘The Librarians’ Review: An Enlightening Doc Follows Nationwide Effort to Fight Against Book Bans Director Kim A. Snyder's feature, debuting at Sundance, introduces the workers fighting against censorship and speaking for the leaves.‘
Lisa Kennedy
Gallery
