First Feature Film Exploring the Rising Tide of Book Bans and Curriculum Censorship in America
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA / ACCESS Newswire / March 20, 2025 / Banned Together, the award-winning feature film that takes an unflinching look at book banning and curriculum censorship in public schools, will be available for streaming exclusively on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video beginning April 10, 2025.
This gripping documentary follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books, many of which addressed race, gender and LGBTQ+ issues, that were suddenly pulled from their school libraries in South Carolina. As the students evolve from local to national activists - meeting with bestselling/banned authors, politicians, Constitutional experts, and more - the film reveals the forces behind the accelerating wave of book bans in the U.S. and the harassment of educators and librarians caught in the crosshairs.
"We're gratified that Banned Together has started a national conversation about marginalized voices being silenced through book bans and the violation of students' rights to receive diverse sources of information in schools," said Banned Together producer Jennifer Wiggin. "We can all learn from the inspirational students featured in the film stepping up to protect those rights against powerful forces - in school board meetings, in statehouses and even in the halls of Congress."
Bestselling author Jodi Picoult, who is featured in the film and whose book Nineteen Minutes was the most banned book in the United States in 2024, said, "This documentary's secret weapons are the three fierce Beaufort, SC teens whose story it follows. With intelligence, compassion, and determination, these young women speak on behalf of their peers - and in doing so, negate the specious argument of book banners who claim their actions protect kids."
Banned Together, an Atomic Focus Entertainment film, in association with Kanopy Original Films, is directed by Kate Way and Tom Wiggin and produced by Jennifer Wiggin, Allyson Rice, Tom Wiggin and Kate Way. The film has appeared in seven film festivals to date, and has won three Best Feature Documentary Awards. Through sponsorship from PFLAG, the National Education Association (NEA) and Interfaith Alliance, Banned Together has been screened more than 75 times - in 27 states, the District of Columbia, the U.K. and Australia.
Video Project, Inc. is grateful to be partnering with the Banned Together team on non-theatrical and educational sales. Based in San Francisco, they have been distributing social justice and environmental documentaries to schools and institutions since 1983.
"My hope is that audiences can use this film to better understand the forces at work behind book bans, and the formula for fighting back against them," said Banned Together director Kate Way. "I also hope the film gives a larger platform to the inspiring and vital young voices speaking truth to power -- they are more important now than ever."
Banned Together features student activists Elizabeth Foster, Isabella Troy Brazoban and Millie Bennett; authors Ellen Hopkins, Jodi Picoult, Juno Dawson, Erika L. Sanchez; and Ibram X. Kendi; Congressman Jamie Raskin, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Howard University professor Justin Hansford; Gullah Geechee Nation Chieftess Queen Quet; Deborah Caldwell-Stone from the American Library Association, Jonathan Friedman from PEN America and members of Families Against Book Bans (FABB), the Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization (DAYLO) and the ACLU of SC. Additional credits: Editor, Cha Quallis; Composer, Kim Bullard; Director of Photography, Dorian Del Valle.
The release of Banned Together comes at a pivotal moment in the fight for free expression, as challenges to books and curriculum continue to rise across the country.
For more information about the film, as well as the Banned Together team, visit www.bannedtogetherdoc.com.
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Contact Information
Anjan Mukherjee
Founder & Principal
anjan@tunlawstrategies.com
SOURCE: Tunlaw Strategies
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