In a room filled to the brim, attendees at the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference in Philadelphia this summer watched Kim A. Snyder’s documentary The Librarians. The Librarians debuted at Sundance Film Festival in January 2025, and in the following months, traveled the country doing shows at libraries and festivals. ALA attendees watching the show gasped and shouted numerous times throughout, as they saw fellow librarians whose lives have been turned upside down, thanks to the nearly five-year fight over books and education in America’s public schools and libraries.
The Librarians is now set to release nationwide, beginning in New York October 3. It will run for a week in Los Angeles starting October 10, then it will expand to 40 cities across the country. The film also has an international rollout, hitting screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning September 26. Viewers in select cities will have the opportunity to engage in local town halls about the film. The documentary will be made available to stream through PBS’s Independent Lens and the BBC later this fall.
In anticipation of the film’s wide release, the team behind it have released their first official trailer:
The film stars librarians who’ve been thrust into the local and national spotlight over their commitment to the freedom to read. Among the leads are Martha Hickson, slandered relentlessly for defending her students’ rights to access books in her New Jersey library; Amanda Jones, who stood up for the right to access books in her Louisiana Parish’s public library; Suzette Baker, former library director in Llano County Library (TX); former Clay County Schools librarian, Julie Miller; and more. Intellectual freedom fighters and librarians Carolyn Foote and Becky Calzada make appearances, as do parents like Laney Hawes, involved with the Texas Freedom to Read Project.
Literary Activism
News you can use plus tips and tools for the fight against censorship and other bookish activism!
Much of the film covers censorship efforts in Florida and Texas. Those stories provide a lens into the coordinated, nationwide moves that attempt to ban books and color librarians as “groomers” promoting “inappropriate” materials to minors. In addition to the librarians’ voices, others are included to add even more context to the story. Among the most potent voices is that of Reverend Jeffrey Dove, a Clay County pastor who worked with Miller when books were being targeted. He hammers home how these bans are about erasure of marginalized voices and history.
Student voices aren’t left out, either. Granbury Public Schools (TX) were early forerunners in issuing demands to ban books. The Librarians gives students in the school’s Banned Books Club time on screen, and it also highlights the story of Courtney Grove, a school board member who initially bought into the rhetoric of her fellow board members, but then realized that she didn’t agree with the books being inappropriate nor illegal.
It’s a moving and heart-rendering film. Not only is the climate around literature for young people in the library handled well, viewers get an inside look at the personal toll the last several years have had on the lives of the film’s subjects. The only necessary criticism of the film is that it leaves no calls to action or next steps for those moved by the stories–most of which are still happening for the film’s stars and in the lives of so many other professionals across the country. At the ALA conference, even librarians were shocked by the stories, despite how well-documented and shared they’d been within the field. Encouraging viewers to step up and defend the freedom to read, as well as defend the professional skills, knowledge, and experience of librarians, would have been more than merited.
The Librarians was directed by Kim A. Snyder and Sarah Jessica Parker served as the executive producer. Among the accolades the film and its team have earned include the Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision at the Seattle International Film Fest, Best Documentary Feature at the Sarasota Film Festival, and both the Best of the Fest and Best Documentary Feature at Woods Hole Film Fest.
Information about the film’s release in select cities and via streaming is available on The Librarians website. You can also purchase tickets through the website.