Looking for something powerful to watch this upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Then you’ll want to grab a ticket to screen the award-winning documentary Banned Together. The one-day viewing event will be the first time the documentary will be widely available to the public–until now, it has only been shown at select in-person events.
Banned Together follows three students and their adult allies as they work to overturn the removal of 97 books from their South Carolina school district. It’s a story of how they went from being local advocates against book censorship to finding themselves on a much larger national stage, helping to educate people about the state of book censorship.
The documentary keeps those students at the story’s center but invites several other voices to share their perspectives on book banning and the ongoing battles over public education. Among those voices are Congressman Jamie Raskin; bestselling and banned authors like Jodi Picoult, Juno Dawson, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Erika L. Sánchez, and Ellen Hopkins; the Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law; a senior investigative researcher from Media Matters for America who’s done in-depth reporting about Moms for Liberty since early 2021; organizations fighting on the front lines in Florida; Maurice Cunningham, author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization; and IL Secretary of State Alexis Giannoulias, who penned and passed the first anti-book ban legislation in the country.
The film has won three awards for best documentary feature film at the Lone Star Film Festival, the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, and the Red Rose Film Festival.
Monday’s one-day Banned Together event is offered in the spirit of activism and justice of MLK and as alternate programming to the inauguration. The film’s creators expect it to draw a large viewership, thanks to the support of a host of anti-censorship and anti-discrimination organizations promoting the event.
To take part, grab a $10 ticket here. On the 20th, you will gain access to the film, which you can watch for up to 48 hours afterward. All funds will help with the film’s National Impact Campaign in 2025 around book bans and academic censorship.
When you purchase a ticket, you might even get the opportunity to hear from some big names–the filmmakers have special video messages from people like Jodi Picoult, Ellen Hopkins, and more for those who purchase tickets to watch the documentary.
Curious? Snag a ticket and watch the trailer below:
If official descriptions are your jam, then here’s that, too: A diverse cast of visionary teenagers, stirring public protests, private threats, criminal charges, and drama-filled school board meetings: this is the explosive world of Banned Together. The film pulls back the curtain on two of the most controversial issues in America today: book bans and curriculum censorship in public schools. Banned Together follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries. As they evolve from local to national activists the film reveals the dark forces behind the accelerating wave of book bans in the U.S.
For more information about Banned Together, check out their website and learn about the creators, students, and experts who helped develop this powerful and necessary work in our era of book censorship.