In a much anticipated screening at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual conference in Philadelphia, The Librarians delivered. 

Eager attendees packed the 600-seat convention center theater on Friday—well before the scheduled start time—to view the documentary, which examines the national crisis of censorship through the stories of librarians, who, at great personal risk, have taken a stand to defend intellectual freedom.

Subjects of the film, including school librarians Amanda Jones, Becky Calzada, Carolyn Foote, and Martha Hickson, appeared alongside the filmmakers at the screening. It was a homecoming of sorts, given the setting and audience, with the ‘Librarians’ on stage and screen bound to their fellow colleagues in the room by a professional mission, which has put them on the front lines, fighting efforts to ban books from schools and libraries around the country.

“There can’t be a greater honor after four years of work on this than to stand here in this room,” said Kim A. Snyder, the film’s director, in opening remarks. Acknowledging the “privilege,” as she put it, of portraying this experience, Snyder said, “We are so proud in collaborating [with the librarians depicted in the film] on telling this story, which is sadly not only critical for the community and entire country, but the world at large.”

Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the film has been making the rounds, with screenings at SXSW and other venues, raising visibility of the censorship occurring in present-day America and the role of librarians, described as “first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment rights” in the film’s marketing campaign. 

Snyder, who received an Academy Award nomination earlier this year for her 2024 doc Death by Numbers, sees The Librarians as the start of something more.

“There are so many others, there are hundreds of stories in this audience. Our idea is to walk with you and grow this movement of librarians. We also want to impact legislation. And we want to work with youth, activists and leaders, who are making this one of their forefront issues,” she said.

 The Librarians is set for theatrical release later this year, and broadcast via PBS in January 2026.

While Jones, Calzada, Foote, and Hickson had attended multiple screenings and participated in talkbacks for the film, including at Sundance, the moment was still an emotional one in Philadelphia. Calzada, for one, paused during her remarks to the Annual crowd to wipe away tears. 

The audience appeared moved as well. 

A heroes’ tale

Opening with black-and-white images of librarians interacting with old-timey bookshelves and smiling, attentive students—a wink and a nod to librarian stereotypes—the film quickly moves on to recount how we got to this place: the infamous 850-title list targeted by Texas state representative Matt Krause, a Republican, in the fall of 2021. In the film, that’s the flashpoint in a nationwide raft of book banning in school and public libraries, still ongoing.

The targets in this conflict are soon established.

In a secretly recorded meeting, the superintendent of Granbury Independent School District, Jeremy Glenn, reads 12 librarians the riot act over any material found to be explicit. “We were told ‘you are responsible for your library,’ recounts one librarian. Glenn advises them to mind Krause’s warning and “Keep you out of a bind and keep me out of a bind.”

While their stories may be familiar to the library community, the profiles of librarians, centered in the film, reveal anew the bravery and dedication of these women. One scene depicts the anguish at the apparent familial disconnect pitting Jones's ethics against her father’s views. There’s an unblinking Hickson who corrects the record at a meeting, speaking firmly into a microphone, “There is no porn in the library.”

The impact of censorship on education, children’s lives, our democratic values is laid out in the film, with the viewer left to make their own conclusions. 

“There’s a growing community of librarians worldwide who stand with you,” Kim Snyder told attendees, noting that after the firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in May, the German National Library reached out and through the filmmakers, offered its help. “With this film we want to create a human chain. We see this movie as a movement.”

Interested in hosting a screening of The Librarians? The filmmakers encourage librarians, institutions and community organizations to complete a request form.