Bibliophobia, Continued

One of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2025 was Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5. Like Peck’s powerful I Am Not Your Negro, the new film is another of the director’s masterful cross-historical montage projects, this one linking the doomsday futurism of 1984 through real world situations throughout history, and naturally to the current Orwellian/Trump-ian state of things. Perhaps inevitably, Peck’s film includes a segment about book burning/censorship, and its link to Nazi terror on backward, and forward.

Fast forward to now. For further “reading” and watching on the subject, proceed directly to the fairly chilling but important new film The Librarians, taking the issue to the front lines warriors of the current battle for rights and freedom of speech. Director Kim A. Snyder’s skillfully assembled and topical saga, like Peck’s film, dips into relevant and sometimes darkly kitschy film clips and sobering remnants of book burnings around the world, from the infamous 1939 Berlin bonfire to the one in Tennessee, of recent vintage. 

But this historical and global backdrop frames the doc’s central point of focus, the scourge and surge of book banning efforts in America just within the past five years, particularly in Texas and Florida. Books on the hit list include many titles dealing with LGBTQ, race (including African-American authors and subjects), and sexuality, which parent-fueled groups are fervent about keeping out of the eyeshot of young children.

In such cities and towns as Granbury, Texas, Clay County, Florida, and even New Jersey — among the sites the film closely covers — there are organized campaigns to remove books from public schools, sometimes demonizing and making heroes out of brave librarians resisting the efforts. We get a sense of the fraught and vulnerable atmosphere for outspoken librarians from the outset in the film, as we meet an anonymous librarian — in silhouette — fearing reprisals, firings, criminal charges, and death threats for their effort.

The film, which has a special screening at the Riviera Theatre on January 29,  opens with a quote from the opening of Ray Bradbury’s book-burning classic Fahrenheit 451, “it was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” Then, our anonymous testifier comments, “we’re not necessarily meant to be seen and heard. We’re the stewards for the people. Now, we’re in the vanguard. We have to speak up.”

On the list of intrepid librarians who have spoken, and who become protagonists in the film, are Amanda Jones (author of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America), conservative-turned-library rights activist Courtney Gore, and New Jersey activist librarian Martha Hickson. 

Much of the recent wave of censorship is being spawned and sponsored by the group known as Moms for Liberty, rising out of Texas and out of the pandemic social tailspin of 2021. But the film exposes ties to a far larger and more insidious political machinery behind the drive to push the Christian rightist agenda, aligned with the general “anti-woke” maneuvers of the present regime. A proponent of book banning claims, “this is a spiritual war, not a political war.” From the opposite perspective, though, a defender of library freedom suggests that “the culture wars are right smack dab in our country, and school boards are now where people pushed political agendas.”

The Librarians’ most dramatic sequence touches on the volatile crossover of opinions and lifestyles cleaving people’s socio-political-religious proclivities and even tensions within families. In Granbury, the censorship-promoting citizen Mary Brown speaks out for her cause, while her gay son, Weston — who has been shunned from the family — gives an emotional speech before the school board, rebuking his mother, who sits twenty feet away, filming with her camera. It’s a tense and very human moment, in a film often dealing with broad, philosophical issues.

Among the quotes flown into the film are one from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (a book sometimes victimized by bannable): “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” Late in the film, Orwell’s ominous words, from 1984, slip into the picture: “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” It takes no leap to recognize the sting of the statement, nearly 80 years after it was written and 42 years after the tale’s presumed “future state.”

A place of darkness is all too prevalent at the moment, in society, on the streets and yes, in the libraries. A ripe and timely account and piece of documentary craft, The Librarians may be due for a sequel in the near future.

View trailer here.

The screening of The Librarians kicks off an “I Love My Library” campaign for the Santa Barbara Public Library.

“We are thrilled that SBIFF is screening this important film,” said Brandon Beaudette, Library Director of Santa Barbara Public Library. “This film illuminates the work libraries are doing every day to protect access to information, uphold intellectual freedom, and serve our communities with integrity.” 

Library on the Go will be onsite before the event, offering attendees the chance to learn more about library services, checkout and return materials, create library cards, and connect directly with library staff.

Launching at the January 29 screening event, the“I Love My Library” campaign, an initiative coordinated and run by Library Support Groups, invites the Santa Barbara community to show support for its public libraries and library staff through letters and personal stories. 

From February 1-14, Valentine-themed collection boxes will be placed at participating local businesses and schools throughout Santa Barbara. Each location will have pre-printed postcards with thoughtful prompts, making it easy and fun for people of all ages to write a valentine to the library.

“As libraries face continued attacks nationwide, we need community voices more than ever to push back,” said Lauren Trujillo, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation. “The ‘I Love My Library’ campaign is a tangible  way for people of all ages to show their support and help us and Library stakeholders advocate for the future of our libraries.”

The Librarians special screening at the Riviera Theatre is on Thursday, January 29, followed by a Q&A with director Snyder and others to be announced. Tickets are now on sale at sbifftheatres.com/film/the-librarians