Sarah Jessica Parker talked to Variety about The Librarians, a documentary about censorship set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next year.
The film, executive produced by Parker and directed by Kim A. Snyder (Newtown, Us Kids), follows members of the FReadom Fighters, a Texas-based group founded in 2021 by librarians in the state to fight book bans. The organization has since expanded across the nation and in 2022 was awarded the American Association of School Librarians’ Intellectual Freedom Award.
“It’s about the librarians across our country who’ve been fighting against these book bans,” Parker told Variety. “They have been standing up to the ideology that prevents children from having access to certain books and they have put their own lives and their family’s lives at risk, but they have not backed down.”
The documentary centers on Amanda Jones, one of the most prominent librarians fighting book bans in her home state of Louisiana and beyond. Jones published a memoir about her activism, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, in August; a critic for Kirkus called it “a useful book for readers interested in better understanding a persistent problem.”
Parker has long had an interest in all things literary. She has founded two book imprints, and it was recently announced that she’ll be among the judges for next year’s Booker Prize.
The Librarians is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 24, 2025.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
