When Oscar-nominated director Kim A. Snyder was reading news articles about lists of books that state representatives in Texas were insisting be removed from public school libraries, she realized an important voice was being left out of the discussion.

“There wasn’t really a lot about the librarians themselves, and that’s what attracted me — the story of these librarians as fierce, committed defenders, as unlabeled defenders on the front lines of democracy,” she said.

Her documentary The Librarians, which focuses on librarians in Texas, Florida and other states as they navigate the recent movement to ban books, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January. It arrives on the Vineyard in August, screening on August 1 at the Grange Hall, hosted by Circuit Arts, and August 7 at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center.

Seasonal Vineyarder Maria Cuomo Cole also played a big part in the documentary as a producer.

Ms. Cuomo Cole said establishing a foundation of trust with the librarians to allow them to tell their stories freely was important. Partnering with PBS helped that process.

“Having a national, committed distribution partner who really cares about these issues and is going to support it with education was important,” she said.

The movement to ban library books began to heat up in Texas in 2021, when former Texas state Rep. Matt Krause sent a list of books to public schools asking how many of the books the libraries had in circulation. From there, parent advocacy groups also started approaching school districts and demanding books they believed were inappropriate to be banned from school libraries.

The Librarians consists of interviews with current librarians and local government meetings, alongside archival material, including footage from old movies.

“I had a definite fixation with the idea of weaving in the cultural references to old movies,” Ms. Snyder said. “References to librarians in movies, and so that was a whole research project. But with the archival, there were so many fun finds. All of those things were very important for us to weave historic context and then geographic context and literary context.”

When developing the film, the filmmakers came across an unexpected interviewee. Courtney Gore originally ran for the school board in Granbury, one of the first school districts in Texas to ban books, on a pro-book banning platform. But she switched sides after conducting individual research into the issue.

“We knew her to be a very ardent supporter of the book banning and then she changed course, and that’s when we jumped on it and said, ‘can we talk to you?’ And she said yes,” Ms. Snyder recalled.

The film also highlights a mother and son who are on opposing sides of the issue and clashed at a public meeting. The son had come back to Texas to voice his opinions in front of the town and his mother, who years earlier had cut him off from the family after he announced he was gay.

“Those are the moments that are sort of documentary gold when you know you’re getting something that’s unusual like that,” Ms. Snyder said.

The positive response to the movie has been inspiring, Ms. Cuomo Cole said.

“It’s empowering general audience members who care deeply about what’s happening in the country and feel powerless,” she said. “Well, here is something that we can take action about. We can write our elected officials. We can advocate. We can support our libraries, support our librarians and do something.”

The issue has only become more heightened since filming began, the filmmakers said.

“The story is still being written but now it’s everyone’s story. It’s on everyone’s doorstep.” Ms. Snyder said. “The idea of censorship is so much bigger than these particular books. I think that’s the idea, that we were the canaries in the coal mine, but every American citizen, it’s their story too.”

For more information, visit thelibrariansfilm.com.