By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kim A. Snyder
Year: 2025
Running time: 88
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34966678/reference/
Michael says: “Who knew that the changing political climate of the last several years would fid librarians on the front lines of the battle for intellectual freedom? I guess librarians did, but not to the extent that many school and public librarians have found themselves in more conservative parts of the country. Kim A. Snyder’s informative documentary shows the beginnings of the relatively recent attack on libraries in an attempt to remove pornography from school libraries. And let’s be clear, the people who refer to the pornography in libraries are talking about books that focus on race, gender, and sexuality. The only pornogoraphy you might find in a library is if a patron is watching something on the internet.
“Starting and Texas, and sadly branching out to Florida and New Jersey, we see towns passing laws allowing parents and school boards to have books removed from their school and public libraries. The librarians who are responsible for selecting the materials that are in their collections would often do what they could to ignore such orders, speak at town meetings and school board meetings, and often find themselves fired for upholding what all librarians hold at their core, the concept of intellectual freedom.
“The film shows some small victories among the blatant attempts at censorship and book banning, and its focus in squarely on the school librarians who were first in the line of fire. Perhaps because for me, as a librarian, it’s very inside baseball and I know a lot more than what was shown, that I wanted more. But Snyder does a great job portraying these small town librarians as unexpected heroes in a way that you can’t hep but be moved by. And yes, I did see a couple of people I know in some of the scenes shot at the American Library Association conference. 4 cats
“Screened at the Provincetown International Film Festival 2025, Art House”