‘The Librarians’: Documentary Screening and Conversation with Director Kim A. Snyder & Special Guests

Event Details

As part of the Fall of Freedom call to action, The Westport Library is delighted to welcome director/producer Kim A. Snyder for a screening of her award-winning documentary The Librarians, with a panel conversation to follow. Snyder will speak alongside fellow producer Maria Cuomo Cole; acclaimed novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Trey Ellis; StoryFest featured author Oliver Radclyffe; and Connecticut's State Librarian Deborah Schander, to expand on one of the most urgent civil liberties issues of our time.

As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy. A New York Times Critic's Pick, The Librarians is "gripping ... as well-crafted as it is profoundly alarming.”

Why You Should Come

More than a film screening, this event is an exploration of what intellectual freedom means today. The Librarians exposes the growing movement to censor ideas, stories, and voices across the country, and celebrates the everyday heroes standing in its way. Gain a firsthand look at how librarians are fighting on the front lines for the freedom to read and the right to think critically.

About The Librarians

Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.

Watch the trailer for The Librarians

In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories — triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of a large-scale coordinated extremist movement fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work, the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.

"The Librarians shows what it looks like to refuse to be complicit. To use your power for good. To fight for every member of your community, even when it’s unpopular or dangerous." — Latin Media Co.

About Fall of Freedom

Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community. This fall, this call to action is activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance. Beginning November 21-22, 2025, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that channel the urgency of this moment. Fall of Freedom is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part — and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.

Visit falloffreedom.com to learn more.

About the Panelists

Kim A. Snyder is an Academy Award® nominee and Peabody Award-winning director/producer whose latest feature, The Librarians, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is now released globally in 120+ cities. Her Oscar-nominated short Death by Numbers, co-created with gun-violence survivor Sam Fuentes, has won multiple awards. Snyder’s acclaimed films include Us Kids (Sundance 2020), Lessons From a School Shooting (Netflix Original), and Newtown (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS). Her earlier work includes Welcome to Shelbyville (PBS) and I Remember Me (Zeitgeist Films). She also associate produced the Oscar-winning short Trevor, which spawned The Trevor Project. Snyder holds a master’s degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS and lives in New York City.

Maria Cuomo Cole is a nationally respected advocate for social justice and an award-winning documentary producer whose career spans decades of work to advance equity, dignity, and opportunity for vulnerable communities. She is President of Cuomo Cole Productions, where she has produced several acclaimed documentaries that confront injustice and inspire change. Her films — including the Oscar-nominated Death By Numbers and The Invisible War, and The Hunting Ground, and Newtown — have received Emmy and Peabody Awards and have been distributed by PBS, BBC, and Netflix. Her current film, The Librarians, which addresses the issue of book banning, had its world premiere at Sundance and has been screening at international festivals, with a broadcast on PBS scheduled.

Trey Ellis is an American Book Award-winning novelist, two-time Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker, NAACP Image award-winning playwright and essayist, and professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His lauded first novel, Platitudes, was reissued by Northeastern University Press along with his influential essay, “The New Black Aesthetic.” He also served as executive producer of King in the Wilderness, the 2018 Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary (Outstanding Historical Documentary) on the last three days of Dr. King’s life.

Oliver Radclyffe is the author of Frighten the Horses, published by Roxane Gay Books, and Adult Human Male, published by Unbound Edition Press. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Electric Literature, The Gay & Lesbian Review, LitHub, PRINT Magazine and Them. Born in the UK, he currently lives on the Connecticut coast.

Deborah Schander began her tenure as Connecticut’s first female State Librarian in 2021. As head of the State Library agency, her work sits at the intersections of state and local history, government records, civic engagement, education, technology, and the humanities. In each arena, she champions the agency’s role in government and in the lives of Connecticut residents: by preserving and making our history accessible to all, we can together shape and inform our state’s future.