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The Librarians

A Storyville documentary that explores how librarians across the US are risking their safety to defend free speech as book bans and censorship threaten democracy from within.

In an era of escalating censorship, librarians have found themselves on the front line of America’s culture wars. This film follows the dispute between librarians with a deep academic tradition of access to knowledge and campaigning groups who seek to ban books that they find objectionable.

In Texas, the Krause List, a blacklist of 850 books, many focused on race, gender and LGBTQIA+ lives, sparks a wave of book bans that sweep across the country.

What begins in quiet library stacks erupts into fierce battles at school boards, community meetings and courtrooms. Facing harassment, threats and laws that criminalise their work, the librarians refuse to back down, exposing the growing influence of white Christian nationalism and the coordinated efforts to control ideas by silencing voices.

Urgent and deeply human, this film is a powerful reminder that access to knowledge is never guaranteed and that democracy depends on those willing to protect it.

Available now

1 hour, 28 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Director Kim A Synder
Producer Kim A Synder
Producer Janique L Robillard
Producer Maria Cuomo Cole
Producer Jana Edelbaum
Production Company Ideal Partners

Broadcasts