An Emmy-nominated documentary about school librarians fighting book bans screens free Sunday, Oct. 4, at Wildwood United Methodist Church on Farm to Market Road 1488.
Granbury ISD school board trustee Courtney Gore and teacher-librarian Audrey Wilson-Youngblood, both featured in "The Librarians," will join a post-screening panel at the church, located at 8911 FM 1488 between The Woodlands and Magnolia, next to Bear Branch Elementary School.
Anne Russey, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, will moderate the conversation. Teresa Kenney, co-owner of Village Books on Woodlands Parkway and founder of Reading Is Revolutionary, is co-hosting the event alongside the church's Inclusive Connections Group. The screening is presented in partnership with PEN America.
About the film
Directed by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Kim A. Snyder, "The Librarians" follows school librarians in Texas, Florida and other states as they push back against a wave of book removals. The 92-minute documentary traces events back to 2021, when Texas state Rep. Matt Krause issued a list of 850 books for schools to review.
The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, earned 30 festival awards including Best Documentary Feature Film at the Dallas International Film Festival, and received a 2026 Primetime Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. It aired on PBS's "Independent Lens" in February 2026.
Gore's role in the film
Gore has served on the Granbury ISD Board of Trustees since 2021. She originally campaigned on a platform that included concerns about book content in schools but publicly reversed course after reviewing hundreds of pages of curriculum and finding no evidence of the indoctrination she had warned about, according to the Texas Tribune.
"I feel like if I don't speak out, then I'm complicit. I refuse to be complicit in something that's going to hurt children," Gore told the Texas Tribune in May 2024.
Event details
The Oct. 4 screening coincides with the first day of Banned Books Week 2026. According to the event listing on Woodlands Online, doors open at 2:30 p.m. with voter registration available. The film begins at 3 p.m., followed by the panel at 4:45 p.m. The event wraps at 6 p.m.
Admission is free. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
