The Librarians, which premiered at Sundance in early 2025 and broadcast on PBS in early 2026, has been years in the making, but the battle at its core still forges on.
The Kim Snyder-directed documentary, which recently has been nominated for a primetime Emmy, follows librarians throughout the U.S. as they fight against attempts from state politicians and community members to ban specific books from public school libraries. This removal push — which proponents have framed as an attempt to take “pornography” or inappropriate materials out of schools but which opponents call politically motivated censorship — remains ultra-relevant today as politicians are introducing bills attempting to do something similar in Congress.
The film tells the story of people like Julie Miller in Clay County, Florida, who says she was fired from her job as a high school librarian for asking questions about why certain books, like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel and The Sun and Her Flowers, by Rupi Kaur, were being removed from shelves; and Amanda Jones, in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, who challenged a book-ban initiative in a public library board meeting and received threats.
In October, Snyder says,The Librarians will be released on major streaming platforms coinciding with Banned Book Week. Its filmmakers — a group that includes Newtown producer Maria Cuomo Cole, Beyond Utopia producer Jana Edelbaum and executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker — are preparing an impact campaign to encourage downballot voting among book club members. And the documentary is collaborating with publisher Penguin Random House to adapt the film into a graphic novel, Snyder says.
