Award-winning documentary “The Librarians” Takes You to the Front Lines of Democracy The Dec. 11 screening at the Central Library will be followed by a panel discussion with the director

Learn about the unprecedented wave of book banning and the librarians brave enough to stand up to it at a screening of theaward-winning documentary “The Librarians,”on Thursday, Dec. 11, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.at the Central Library’s Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium.

The screening of the 92-minute film will be followed by a panel discussion with the film’s director/producer Kim A. Snyder and The Seattle Public Library’s Chief Librarian Tom Fay. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required. Register online at The Seattle Public Library’s calendar event. The screening of “The Librarians” is presented with King County Library System, Washington Center for the Book and Washington State Library. It is sponsored by donors to The Seattle Public Library Foundation.

About “The Librarians”

In “The Librarians,” filmmaker Kim A. Snyder follows the rise of book bans that have swept through states such as Texas, Florida and New Jersey. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to expose the extremism fueling the censorship efforts. They face harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work, and still defend the freedom to read.

“The Librarians” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and has been an official selection at numerous festivals nationwide, including the Seattle International Film Festival. The New York Times review of the film wrote that “from its superb opening-credits sequence paying tribute to card catalogs of yore to its sharp selection of vintage clips and intimate reportage, ‘The Librarians’ is as well-crafted as it is profoundly alarming.”

Kim A. Snyder is an award-winning filmmaker whose film “Death By Numbers” was Oscar-nominated for Best Short Documentary. Prior films include “Us Kids,” which premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival; the Peabody award-winning documentary “Newtown”; the feature documentary “Welcome to Shelbyville,” and over a dozen short documentaries. In 1994, she associate produced the Academy Award-winning short film “Trevor,” which spawned The Trevor Project, a leading national not-for-profit addressing LGBTQ teen suicide.

Connect with the Library

The Seattle Public Library (SPL) believes that the power of knowledge improves people's lives. We promote literacy and a love of reading as we bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and empower community. Find more events at www.spl.org/Calendar.

The Library’s Books Unbanned program provides access to digital books for young people impacted by censorship. Since SPL launched its program in 2023, more than 19,000 youth ages 13 to 26 have signed up for an SPL Books Unbanned card and checked out more than 571,000 e-books and e-audiobooks.

Contact the Library’s Ask Us service by phone at 206-386-4636 or by email or chat at spl.org/Ask. Staff are ready to answer questions and direct you to helpful resources and information. Find out more about our future plans at www.spl.org/StrategicPlan.