Flyout Menu
Main Menu
Friday, June 13
6:00 PM - 7:40 PM

Regal Gallery Place

701 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

The Librarians

Director

Kim A. Snyder

Executive Producers

Sarah Jessica Parker, Alison Benson, Hallee Adelman, Amber Alonso, Kate Garwood, Marni Grossman, Geralyn Dreyfous, Tegan Acton, Emma Pompetti, Thomas Campbell Jackson, Penny B. Jackson, Melony & Adam Lewis, Regina K. Scully, Peter Resnick, Christian Camargo, Colleen Deveer, Rachel Cohen, Heidi Stolte, Chris Stolte , Ruth Ann Harnisch, Lois Vossen, Carrie Lozano

Producers

Kim A. Snyder, Janique L Robillard, Maria Cuomo Cole, Jana Edelbaum

Editors

Mark Becker, María Gabriela Torres, Leah Boatright, Austin Reedy

Consulting Editor

Co-Editor

Assistant Editor

Cinematographers

Amy Bench, Paulius Kontijevas, Derek Wiesehahn

Additional Cinematography

Music

Nico Muhly

Sound

Narration

Contact

As an unprecedented wave of book banning, primarily targeting race and LGBTQIA+ issues, spreads across Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege unite as unlikely defenders, fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.

Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Kim A. Snyder takes us to this unexpected front line, where librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy, free access to information, and our First Amendment rights. As they understand all too well, controlling the flow of ideas means controlling communities.

In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories, sparking an unprecedented wave of book bans across the U.S. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide, revealing the White Christian Nationalism driving censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aiming to criminalize their work, these librarians’ rallying cry for the freedom to read stands as a chilling cautionary tale.

Post-screening conversation with director Kim A. Snyder, producer Maria Cuomo Cole, and film protagonist, librarian Martha Hickson.

06xyxKHJSBH_WAfgX59n9ohQ1CNnDALnfjdNiUfuyHE

Kim A. Snyder

Director, The Librarians

Kim A. Snyder directed the Peabody award-winning documentary Newtown, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was named in Newsweek and Huffington Post among the top films of 2016. Newtown screened at premiere festivals worldwide and was theatrically released followed by a national broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens as the most widely watched documentary of the past decade. Snyder’s most recent film, Lessons From a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary Short followed by the DocDispatch Award at the 2018 Sheffield DocFest. The short is a Netflix Original and is streaming in 196 countries. Snyder directed, Welcome to Shelbyville, which was nationally broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in 2011. In 2007, Snyder co-founded the BeCause Foundation to direct and produce a series of socially conscious short documentaries which have won numerous awards with campaigns furthering the work of the social innovators they highlight. Snyder’s award-winning directorial debut feature documentary, I Remember Me was theatrically distributed by Zeitgeist Films. In 1994, she associate-produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor. Kim graduated with a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and resides in New York City.

BACK TO FILMS