As a reader, just try watching the trailer for The Librarians without getting verklempt. It’s emotional to see librarians under siege, in the United States of all places, as banned books spark a fight over free speech and who decides what children read. Director and Producer Kim A. Snyder spoke with us ahead of the film’s streaming release and U.S. midterm elections. Like her earlier films on gun violence, The Librarians tells a story about young people and the adults who stand up for them.
First off, congrats on the Emmy! Were you surprised by it?
Thank you. Yes, it was a wonderful moment. We were there with eight of our librarians from the film, and they all came holding their favorite banned books.
And something wonderful actually came of it. The film begins in Texas, and recently there was an even more severe crackdown on books, which we didn't think was possible — The Krause List was 850 books [in 2021]; the lieutenant governor in Texas had now named 2,200 books. There was a chilling effect. Even if those books weren't removed yet, he said, "We're coming after those books." Many districts ordered their librarians to preemptively go and take all those books off the shelf.
Several of the books that our librarians were holding at the Emmys had been on that list, including Elie Wiesel's Night and the graphic novel of Anne Frank. Because that image got press, the lieutenant governor was pressed after the press interviewed one of our librarians. The press got to him, and under pressure because of that image, he rescinded. He then turned around and said, "Okay, well, those books should not be off the shelf," the two Holocaust-related books, and then went on to say actually communities should decide for themselves, not the state. So we feel really proud of that.
Julie Miller with ALA Library Bill of Rights
Courtesy of 8 Above & THE LIBRARIANS documentary, image by DP David Allen
What was it about the topic that compelled you to act?
Some of it is instinct. I just thought, wow, they're going after librarians, unlikely defenders on the front lines of our democracy. How did this happen? I really thought it needed to be about the librarians themselves, who since the beginning of time across the globe have been the curators of our knowledge…selfless servants who help communities and children navigate information.
How did you find the librarians to feature in the film?
It started when we first heard about this group in Texas, formed in reaction to the Krause List, calling themselves the FReadom Fighters. We immediately went to talk to them, around the time of the Texas Librarian Association annual meeting. They were reconnecting after a very aberrant time with the pandemic, but they also were in trauma because at the same time — and I think it's connected — during COVID the whole movement of what was being called parental rights, by folks like Moms for Liberty, was growing.
We went to that conference and started to build trust. We went in a kind of anonymous space and started hearing from many librarians in Texas, and then it went beyond. We realized that to do the story justice we had to go beyond Texas, and we ended up traversing parts of the South and even up into New Jersey and New York.
Supporters of removal say they're protecting kids from inappropriate materials. How did you balance all of those viewpoints in the film?
We talk about parental rights. I think it's a bastardization of that term, in that when you tell a whole community what everyone's kids should read and not read, you are infringing, in fact, on parental rights in the name of parental rights. We try to remind people that there has always been a process that is constitutional and right by the books and the libraries, and it worked. If people had an issue with sensitive material, there was a way to deal with that. And then in the fall of '21, with the Krause List, there was this unprecedented reversal of that, and a breaking of protocol and constitutional rights.
We certainly highlight what Moms for Liberty are asserting, but they also use words like "indoctrination." And we always say, we're talking about libraries where you might have 20,000 books. No one is forcing a kid to check out any particular book. It's really about representation. It was a very overt attempt to erase and marginalize books about marginalized characters and by marginalized authors from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, under the guise of the books and culture wars. As we show in the movie, the layers of the onion are that it's a much more organized attempt, along the lines of Project 2025, to tear down public education, remove the separation of church and state as we know it in public education, and promote a white Christian nationalist agenda.
Books banned
Courtesy of 8 Above & THE LIBRARIANS documentary, image by DP Paulius Kontijevas
What did you learn about librarians from this experience that you didn't know before?
There was an interview that Sarah Jessica Parker, our executive producer, did at one point on ABC News where she said there might be this stereotype that they're kind of quiet and behind the scenes, and then when they were faced with this, they became fierce, fierce warriors. So: courage like I've never seen, humor, funny, wicked smart and funny. I literally wake up and can't wait to read our text chain, because there's always a chuckle.
Which is why we named it Librarians Without Borders. When you think of Doctors Without Borders, there's a real moral commitment to a code of ethics and many of them will sacrifice everything. A lot of our veterans feel that way, and one of our librarians is a veteran. It's that same kind of best-of-American sacrifice and commitment — two values that uphold democracy.
You’ve said that books and libraries saved you growing up. What did you mean?
I credit my mother. She didn't let us watch a lot of TV, and I was voracious about my books. My mom and dad worked, and my mom would often just leave me in the library for the whole day while she worked, in Princeton, NJ.
I hadn't thought of it until I made this movie, but maybe the reason [this theme] struck such a nerve in me and so many others around the country is that the library holds the first memories I have of freedom and agency. When you go to a library, you have all of those choices. I could walk out with as many books as I wanted. I could travel to foreign lands; I could learn about characters that reminded me of myself or who I wanted to be. They gave me a sense of agency, freedom, creativity and imagination when confined by the stewardship of my parents. I'm sure I wouldn't have become a filmmaker without my books.
If you were making The Librarians today, is there anything you would do differently?
Well, I say humbly that the film has become a movement and has affected so much change in very hyperlocal ways. We've been in hundreds of film festivals, with 28 awards before the Emmy, and we have screened in over 200 cities across the country in theaters. We've screened in hundreds of universities, libraries, and conferences.
Anonymous librarian
Courtesy of 8 Above & THE LIBRARIANS documentary, image by DP Amy Bench
We've been able to advocate for down-ballot voting, which is something we're asking people to do in this next [election] period, and we have pretty good evidence that we have influenced pro-public-education candidates in school boards. We've gone in where there are uncontested, extremist candidates on the school board, vehement book banners, and they've been ousted.
The other thing is the youth. As a youth movement issue, as one librarian said, this is a civil rights issue. We've been able to affect that. As I said, in Texas we actually affected millions of school kids, hopefully with continued access to these important books.
October is a really important period as we head into the U.S.’s midterm electoral cycle...and we've learned that this film cuts across partisan spaces. It's played in sold-out screenings in every state in our heartland. The call to action is for people to rent or buy the film and have watch parties, maybe with your book club. Become the person in your community who advocates: learn where your local candidates stand on public education, and then advocate for down-ballot voting.
What we've learned is that school boards really matter. They are one of the strongest examples of local control that we have in our government. At a time when so many people are like, "I feel no power. What can I do? What can I do?", this is something in your own little community that you actually can do. The majority of school board races are nonpartisan; censorship is not a red or blue issue. That's what we've learned most. It is fundamentally un-American. We have gone to war over issues of censorship, and it is anti-democracy. There are so many Republicans who agree with that.
There's a group on the ground that we've worked with called the School Board Integrity Project, and I'm quoting them: "The future we choose for our public schools is the future we choose for our country."
Find out where to rent or buy The Librarians here.
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