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Watch the trailer for The Librarians, a documentary directed by Kim A. Snyder which focuses on the escalating book bans in public libraries and the harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing the work of librarians and how they are rallying and standing up for the freedom to read. The film is screening in selected theaters throughout the United States and Canada.
In this video from the Sage-sponsored “Banned Books From the Big Chair” booth at the American Library Association’s 2025 annual conference, authors and attendees respond to the dangers of book banning and the importance of supporting public libraries and the freedom to read.
In this video, George Takei, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2025, talks about how “access to books and knowledge is essential to democracy” and how reading provides a way to see ourselves reflected in stories and to discover the stories of others. To learn more, visit the Banned Books Week website.
In this PBS Independent Lens documentary codirected by Dawn Logsdon, who also narrates, and Lucie Faulknor, the history of public libraries is uncovered, from the quiet revolutionaries who opened these doors to all, to today’s librarians who service the public in an age of closures and book bans. “Libraries are not just about books. They’re about people, and they’re about stories.”
In this event from the 2024 Atlantic Festival on the topic of books bans in the United States and the world, Atlantic staff writer Gal Beckerman moderates a discussion with Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association, and Victoria Scott-Miller, owner of Liberation Station Bookstore, as well as a discussion with Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad and author and activist Rania Mamoun.
In this virtual event, Banned Books Week honorary chair and award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay joins youth honorary chair Julia Garnett, a student activist who fought book bans in her home state of Tennessee, for a conversation about advocacy and fighting censorship.
“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them.” In this 2011 video for Banned Books Week, frequently censored author Judy Blume speaks about the negative effect that book banning has on children.
In this PBS Books virtual event celebrating the release of the fortieth anniversary edition of The House on Mango Street, published by Everyman’s Library, author Sandra Cisneros discusses the novel and how it has touched many lives and affected the literary landscape in a conversation with Heather-Marie Montilla.
In this special edition of the Banned Book Club series hosted by the New York Public Library, Sonora Reyes discusses their award-winning debut novel, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (Balzer + Bray, 2024), which tells the story of a queer Mexican American girl navigating her way through Catholic school.
“Freedom of expression is everything.” In this PEN America video, family members of George M. Johnson read and reflect on a letter from the author in response to a call to ban their book, All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), and other books from a library in New Jersey, just miles from where Johnson grew up.
