This may be the most important documentary of 2026…The Librarians! A documentary about the book banning efforts in Texas over the last 5 years by “right-wing patriot groups” who seem to think that librarians and school libraries are the enemy of Christian and conservative values. The documentary explores fringe right-wing groups who are really just MAGA that started a movement to get books removed from school libraries, books that they deemed win against Christian values, that were race-related, two sexual in nature, and promoted LGBTQ ideas. The real group behind this movement started by making a list of over 800 books that need to be removed from school libraries and the irony of that movement, one of the books they deem too controversial is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a book about a society who burns books. Go figure! But it’s interesting that they would target librarians as officials promoting unpatriotic literature, pornography, and literature that they think groom’s children…think about that, Librarians being an enemy of the state. I won’t dive into where the controversies really started and the school districts that are being targeted, but this is an incredible documentary that should make your blood boil because who would have thought this would happen in America…to do the same thing as Nazi Germany.
Directed by Kim A Snyder, the film had a great festival run ad has been shown overseas, it will now be available on the PBS platform here in the US starting on February 9th. This is not a political documentary, it shouldn’t be considered a political documentary, but anytime you’re talking about freedom or liberty and censorship, of course it’s always going to be deemed political. I consider this more of a moral documentary because one doesn’t get to promote about freedom in America and then defend censorship. The film does focus on the activists and school districts that have been plagued by this issue and where the money has really come from to fund conservative candidates on school boards and why librarians have really been targeted. It’s a great film that explores how something like this can truly happen in America when most people think that it can only happen in Nazi Germany. More importantly it talks about the books that are really being taken out of libraries and why they are a threat to a right-wing agenda or the true political message of groups like “Moms for Liberty” who are the true conservative activists behind book banning in school libraries. This movie will become one of the most important issues in the 2026 elections. Serious questions need to be asked about the true cost of Liberty and freedom when it comes to education. That’s what this film addresses and that’s why everybody needs to see it. It’s not very long, only about 90 minutes so the pacing is perfect.
You get to the “crux” of everything and get introduced to a lot of essential characters on both sides of the aisle, but also how school librarians are not really the enemy, but just like you and me. I encourage everybody to watch this and PBS is the perfect platform considering it has always been free public broadcasting without any agenda for so many years…PBS always been about free open information and what can be better and discussing the issue of banning books in a conservative state like Texas and how it’s a threat to all of American society. When you get to the end of the film, everybody will have to ask themselves, do you really believe in freedom or are you okay with censorship because that’s what this film is truly about…the censoring and banning of ideas especially the ones that don’t fit a single narrative, My only critique is that it is such a huge issue, that you can do an entire series about book banning and censorship in America, what’s happening in Texas is just one small chapter, But what’s happening in Texas is a great place to start when addressing the issue of banning books and censorship in America as a whole. Check out The Librarians…you won’t be disappointed.
