School librarians gathered at the Sundance Film Festival to watch the documentary, The Librarians, that chornicled their fights against censorship. Among them, Becky Calzada (far left), Amanda Jones (second from left), Martha Hickson (fourth from right) and Carolyn Foote (far right). Photo courtesy of Martha Hickson

After years of battling censorship and enduring personal attacks, school librarians traveled to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, in January to screen The Librarians, a documentary that chronicled their fight.

Among those in attendance were 2021 School Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones, Martha Hickson, Becky Calzada, and Carolyn Foote. They each described the experience in the same word: Overwhelming.

There were tears, standing ovations, and support from peers and the public.

“We saw three screenings and each time was like being wrapped in a warm blanket of love,” says Hickson, who also admitted the first viewing was "gut-punching" and felt like she was reliving the worst times all over again. In the end, though, the result was powerfully positive.

“After enduring, for me, five years of attacks and slurs and defamation, to be with other librarians who were in the film and to receive the affirmation and appreciation of those audiences was just so healing,” she says.

“It was just such a powerful film in that it really took time to give accounts of individual librarians' experiences,” says Foote, who with Calzada co-founded FReadom Fighters, a grassroots organization that started in Texas but has become a leader in the national movement to fight book bans and censorship. FReadom Fighters connected the filmmakers to librarians around the country. Despite living it for years and knowing all-too-well the stories of the librarians shown in the film, Foote was moved when she watched.

“I just felt so much pride in the courage that librarians have been showing both on large scale, but also, the quiet ways that people have showed courage in their own districts,” says Foote. “It was also touching to me just how the audience received it.”

Directed by Peabody winner Kim Snyder, the documentary includes stories of school librarians Audrey Wilson-Youngblood, Suzette Baker, Nancy Jo Lambert, Marie Masferrer, Julie Miller, Jones, Calzada, Foote, and Hickson. It was filmed from fall of 2021 through last year. It is expected to be shown on PBS in the fall.

“I’m so grateful to Kim Snyder and her team for their work and support,” says Calzada. “They are all deeply invested in this film and have checked in on all of us to make sure we are okay throughout this entire time.”

The Hollywood Reporter called it “powerful” and offered a rave review.

"I am overwhelmed by how well the film so beautifullycaptured the heroism of residents and librarians fighting for intellectual freedom across the country," says Jones (center, glasses, no hat). "Sundance was a surreal experience, but the best part to me was getting to stand side by side with these women whom I admire so very much. Among those are several Utah librarians (pictured) who attended one of the screenings." Photo courtesy of Amanda Jones

“Seamlessly assembling a wide variety of material, including vintage film snippets mixed in with the archival and original footage, The Librarians observes a clutch of educators, almost all women, fighting on the culture-war frontlines. Their opponents are legion: conservative school boards, members of the recently scandal-ridden right-wing organization Moms for Liberty and publicity-hungry Republican politicians, among others. …

“As clips of news reportage lays out incidents of the metastasizing censorship spreading across mostly “Red” states—although we do drop in on a fractious situation in New Jersey, too—Snyder gets boots on the ground to film local school board meetings where librarians, students, teachers and parents try to defend freedom of speech. Unfortunately, they’re all too often up against well-organized campaigns from the likes of Moms for Liberty, with their dark-money connections, who onboard a rogue’s gallery of speakers not just frothing at the mouth about the content of the books, but throwing around accusations against the librarians themselves.”

Sarah Jessica Parker, one of the documentary's executive producers, spent days with the librarians in Park City and cried with them as they all watched it together.

“This is not someone who's just lending her staff, star power to a project, and that's it,” says Hickson. “First of all, she’s the kindest, most gracious person, just a lovely woman, but she truly believes in this project. She is what Mychal Threets would call a library kid. She actually grew up in libraries.”

Amanda Jones and Becky Calzada after an event and public discussion about the documentary. "I was just capturing a moment on my phone," says Calzada. "It was a surreal and special day." Photo courtesy of Becky Calzada

Parker saw the finished film for the first time at Sundance but had viewed footage throughout the process, including some of Hickson and her husband, Doug, that didn’t make the final cut in the hour-and-a-half film. She told Hickson two things in those early clips moved her to tears.

“One, she couldn't believe how alone I was, how little support I had from my school and my community,” Hickson says Parker told her. “And two, how supportive my husband, Doug, was. She said she could see right away that all he wanted was the best for me. …She really gets the very personal aspects of this story, as well as the bigger societal impact of going after the institution of libraries.”

Foote was struck by the panels she participated in, fielding questions from crying audience members and often being approached afterward by people still in tears. After screenings began and more festival-goers saw the film, the librarians were often cheered when seen on the Park City streets.

Hickson was struck that even in what she would consider a “friendly” audience of people likely knowledgeable about current events and world affairs, many viewers approached her saying they did not know this was happening.

“Not ‘I did not know this was that bad,’” says Hickson. “‘I did not know this was happening’ period.”

Hickson hopes the film can be seen by a wide audience to create the needed awareness.

“It's clear that we have a lot of work to do to get the word out to people that fascism is on the front porch,” she says. “I'm hoping that this documentary will raise that awareness and get people not just aware, but activated.”