Educational Media Reviews Online

Book bans around the country have been getting an increasing amount of attention, especially in a period where intellectual freedom is facing attacks from the top on down. Banned Together follows three South Carolina teenagers as they push back against book bans, first in their local community, and then on a state-wide and national scale.

Isabella, Elizabeth, and Millie are members of DAYLO, a community service-oriented organization dedicated to promoting diverse youth literature and fighting censorship. The film follows along as the teens start speaking up in local school board meetings about book bans, eloquently making their voices heard in their desire for diverse, representative reading materials. Shown also, though, is the vehement pushback from community members who feel that the reading materials are inappropriate for children. This is one of the overarching threads of the film: who has the right to determine what material is appropriate, and for whom? Can a concerned parent make decisions for children other than their own? Do they have that right? Where is the boundary line between appropriate and inappropriate? Should children, especially high school students, be the authoritative voice?

Under the guidance of parent mentors, Isabella, Elizabeth, and Millie take their advocacy on the road. The film introduces a who’s who of experts that the students interview, each person raising thought provoking questions or statements. Justin Hansford, a law professor and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, tells the three “I have to say, for people like yourselves, young, brilliant students, you need to be accessing as many ideas as possible and building the critical thinking skills that will allow you to determine what beliefs and ideas you want to hold and espouse.” This statement ties in with what becomes the theme of the second half of the film, the rise of Moms for Liberty and their dark money-funded attacks on intellectual freedom.

Moms for Liberty, founded in 2021, is a conservative political organization that touts itself as providing the tools for parents who don’t want inappropriate materials—by which they mean content focused on themes such as LGBTQ+, Critical Race Theory, or any materials relating to race, non-white culture, gender, sexuality, or discrimination—in their school or local libraries. Moms for Liberty has dominated headlines in the four years since their inception, largely in conjunction with local and state book bans and challenges. The film dives into their organization, fighting back against their narrative that they only provide resources. It acknowledges the source of so much of their funding—dark money from politically conservative billionaires in order to influence politics. Many of the members of Moms for Liberty have connections to high-ranking members of the Republican Party, in some cases all the way up to Donald Trump.

Another of the persons interviewed in the film is a Florida activist named Stephana Ferrell, the director of Research and Insight at the Florida Freedom to Read Project. Ferrell documents her rise to activism when book bans at her elementary-aged kids’ school started catching on. More importantly, Ferrell brings to attention to the flip side of engaged activism against Moms for Liberty, including being doxed, verbally harassed, receiving death threats, internet bullying, and the increase in violence and threats towards educators and librarians. Ferrell points out that while wealthy conservatives have a vested interest in book bans as an authoritarian way to keep a population uneducated, uninformed, and compliant, she also highlights an additional fear behind the rise of challenges, that a parent’s child—a community’s future—may grow up to believe differently than the generation before them.

In that, Isabella, Elizabeth, and Millie shine as informed, passionate teenagers who want to ensure that every child has the right to read materials in which they may see themselves represented, as well as the agency to make decisions for themselves as to what to read and believe. While illuminating the larger picture of book bans and challenges, the film also serves as a road map for beginning an activist journey. Perhaps the only shortcoming of the film is a lack of overview of the history of book bans in this country—as it is, the film focuses only on recent bans, giving the impression that bans haven’t been much of a concern before now. Otherwise, Banned Together is an insightful, inspiring, and occasionally maddeningly frustrating film that speaks to the human desire for knowledge, to be seen and represented in media, and to be able to make decisions for themselves rather than have their choices taken away by a voice other than their own.

Awards:
Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature; Lone Star Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature; Red Rose Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature

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