The Librarians
Film screening
Indie Lens Pop-Up
Shubert Theatre
Feb. 18, 2026
The first lines of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 seminal novel about a dystopian American future where books are outlawed and burned appear in the opening of the 2025 documentary The Librarians.
“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened, and changed.”
That novel was published in 1953. The story told in this film begins in 2021 when a list of 850 banned books (and yes, one of them is Fahrenheit 451) is issued to school libraries in Texas and a fight against censorship begins.
Directed and coproduced by Kim A. Snyder, “The Librarians” was the first in the Shubert Theatre’s ongoing series called “Indie Lens Pop-Up,” which offers documentary films that are later featured on PBS. That series began its third year last night, welcoming a crowd filled with current and former librarians as well as book and film enthusiasts.
Host Kelly Wuzzardo, the Shubert’s director of education and engagement, introduced the film and led a post film discussion. Before the film began, she shouted out the librarians in the crowd, which she noted was “by far the biggest” they had ever had for this series. The librarians responded with cheers and received even more cheers and applause from the rest of the audience.
After a preview of the next three films in this year’s series and a brief filmed introduction by Snyder, the documentary began and kept the audience in its grip from frame one. The viewer is taken from Texas to Florida to New Jersey as a wave of book bannings challenge school librarians to the point that many of them not only got released from their jobs (in one area 20 out of 40 are let go) but were also harassed and threatened.
“We just never imagined we’d be in the forefront,” says an anonymous librarian referring to how they are typically out of the limelight as “stewards of the space, stewards of the resources” but that all of that had now changed.
“We have to be out front telling the story.”
Those utterly compelling and immediately concerning stories are told throughout this film by those librarians as well as others including parents and teens fighting censorship, defending the right to have unrestricted access to all books. As the film progresses it becomes about more than a list of books in a school library: it becomes a fight for First Amendment rights and democracy itself.
Viewers are privy to school board meetings where it is argued that the books they want to remove contain “pornographic” materials. In actuality, books that focus on LGBTQ stories and celebrate diversity are some of the ones included on those lists, a wide range of titles from 1924’s The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann to 2020’s Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. These librarians, who are literally just doing their jobs, end up being accused of “grooming” and promoting “obscene” materials.
The frustration and sadness of watching them fight for, let’s face it, all of us, is incredibly tense at times, but is also a testament to their tenacity. Even as the net gets cast wider and more and more outside forces conspire against them they do not back down, ever.
Those of us who have lived a life made richer and more robust by books, libraries, and librarians have even more to be thankful for after viewing this film. It is easy to take them all for granted, even though book banning is not something new. (Footage from a book burning as recently as 2022 was shown in this film.) And while the clips of such events as well as the clips of those speaking who are in favor of banning are extremely disconcerting, it is the moments of strength and perseverance of those standing up to keep the libraries a safe haven that shine through.
This reporter could not help but recall her own experiences as a youth hungry for more knowledge reading everything I could get my hands on, especially grateful to live in a town with a Bookmobile, a traveling library that pulled up to my parents’ place of business all summer long allowing me a chance to have access to as many books as I wanted when school was not in session. My school library was an oasis, yet another place where those librarians, the most patient and helpful of adults who were even cooler because they loved books too, could help you find that perfect story or two to keep the most voracious reader satiated yet always ready for more. There was nowhere more welcoming, safer, or more secure.
To see such spaces invaded and those librarians accused in this film is at the very least jarring and at the very most terrifying, though without spoiling anything it can be shared that there are many bright spots highlighted (yes indeed, some battles are won!).
One of the librarians featured, Amanda Jones, even wrote a book called “That Librarian” about her experiences. And still more librarians continue to speak out and inspire all of us to not sit back and let more of the same happen.
“Our story is still being written,” one says, “But now it’s everyone’s story.”
The applause afterwards was indicative of everyone’s agreement with that statement.
“The Librarians” is now available for viewing on PBS. The Indie Lens Pop-Up series continues next month at the Shubert. More information can be found at their website.
