Screening of 'The Librarians' with Filmaker Kim A Snyder

Librarians are on the front lines of one of the most urgent battles of our time: the fight for democracy and the freedom to read. As guardians of access to ideas, they face unprecedented challenges—from sweeping book bans to harassment, threats, and even laws designed to criminalize their work.

In The Librarians, Director/Producer Kim A Snyder exposes how censorship campaigns, sparked by the “Krause List” of 850 books in Texas, have spread across the country—targeting stories of race, identity, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The film connects the dots between heated school board meetings, library challenges, and the rise of White Christian Nationalism, revealing a chilling cautionary tale about control, power, and the fragility of our First Amendment rights.

Following the screening, Snyder will join us for a live Q&A to discuss the making of the documentary, the courageous librarians featured, and what’s at stake in this critical fight for free expression.

KIM A SNYDER’S most recent film Death By Numbers was Oscar-nominated for Best Short Documentary and garnered 2024 Montclair Film Festival Best Short Documentary and Honorable Mention Jury Award from Doc NYC. Her most recent feature documentary The Librarians (PBS / Independent Lens) premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is an official selection at numerous festivals nationwide. Prior films include Us Kids premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, followed by SXSW, Sheffield, and Full Frame, where it received the Kathleen Edwards Bryan Human Rights Award and 14 subsequent festival awards. Prior she directed the Peabody award-winning documentary Newtown, which also premiered in the US Competition at Sundance 2016. Her short documentary Lessons From a School Shooting (2018 Netflix Original, 2018 Tribeca Best Short Documentary). Snyder’s other works include the feature documentary, Welcome to Shelbyville, nationally broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in 2011, and over a dozen short documentaries. Kim’s award-winning directorial debut feature documentary, I Remember Me was theatrically distributed by Zeitgeist Films. In 1994, she Associate Produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor, which spawned The Trevor Project, a leading national not-for-profit addressing LGBTQ teen suicide. Kim graduated with a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and resides in New York City.